“The condition of affairs which I have been attempting to describe is greatly aggravated by the fact that the idea of punishment and discipline reigns supreme in the prison. Much is said in the rules and regulations about the aim of the institution being to improve every prisoner and turn each man out a better and more useful individual than when he came in. That is one of the standing jokes of the prisoners and not without reason, for one has only to read the book of rules itself to see that the military tradition of punishment and discipline is the medicine which is expected to work this great transformation. But unfortunately most of the occupants of a military prison are there because of their failure or refusal to accept this military tradition. They are there because they are weak, mentally and morally, or too independent for the army or because they object to it on principle. “So far as I have had experience in life I have yet to observe anything more absolutely negative in its purpose and effects than this method of discipline. The prisoner who has the distinction of having been longest at Fort Leavenworth, had only two more days of his sentence to complete when a guard called him a vile name, and utterly regardless of the inevitable consequences this prisoner knocked the guard down with a brick. He has since received several extensions of sentence because of other defiant acts. The ball and chain, solitary confinement and all the other repressive measures of the prison system have some way not succeeded as yet in turning this man out of prison a ‘better man than when he came in.’ There unquestionably is a criminal element in prison that is a menace to society, but depraved or vicious as some of these men may be, there is yet some good in every one of them and possibilities of truly chivalrous conduct in all of them when properly treated. But the ball and chain, the iron rule, the cursing and foul threats by guards do not seem to bring out the good side of these men.