The decrease of crime, _i.e._, as judged from the reduced daily average population of persons in prison, which had been habitually quoted and regarded as the correct test of a successful prison system, was shown on examination to be due almost entirely to a diminution in the average length of sentences. This fact, _i.e._, a greater leniency on the part of Magistrates and Judges, taken in conjunction with the remarkable outburst of public sentiment, to which I have referred, undoubtedly connote a gradual rise and growth throughout the community of a tendency towards a larger humanity in the treatment of crime, and a more rational execution of the sentences of the law. Hope of rehabilitation, which had perhaps been made too subordinate to the desire for a firm and exact repression, began to lift its head, and, from this time, the responsibility of the official authority, as a reclaiming agency, became greatly accentuated. The new spirit which breathes in this Report, and which has largely influenced subsequent legislation and practice, is to be found, so far as Local Prisons are concerned, principally in reforms having for their purpose:-- (1) the concentration of effort on the young or incipient criminal, 16-21. (2) improved classification, and the separation of first from other offenders in Local Prisons. (3) the abolition of the old forms of "hard labour"-- cranks, treadwheels &c. The rules provide that the labour of all prisoners shall, if possible, be productive, and the only difference, so far as labour is concerned, between a sentence with, and without, hard labour, is that in the former case a prisoner works in cellular separation for the first twenty-eight days of his sentence, after which period he may work with the rest in association in workrooms, or other open spaces. So long as the Statute preserves the distinction between imprisonment with, or without, hard labour, it is necessary that the system should give effect to the distinction, but the meaning which has been so long associated with the phrase "hard labour" still lingers in the public mind, which even now is apt to imagine that a sentence of hard labour implies a long period of solitary confinement with employment throughout the sentence on hard monotonous forms of labour, such as cranks and treadwheels. Associated labour on productive work is now the rule of Local Prisons, subject to the exception above stated. (4) the reorganization of "_Patronage_" or Aid-on-discharge. (5) improved methods for the education and moral betterment of prisoners. (6) the establishment of Training Schools for all ranks of the Prison Staff. (7) improved Prison Dietary. (8) improved medical treatment with special regard to weakminded and tuberculous cases. (9) the reconstruction of prisons, with a view to better sanitation, and provision of workshops for associated labour.