The difference between the old system and the new system lies chiefly in the manner of dealing with the prisoners. Under the new plan an appeal is made to the prisoner’s honor and good will. After being tested within the walls, he is permitted to join a company of workers outside the wall on his promise of good work and good behavior, and on his promise not to run away. The prisoners work without chains, and the guards in many cases carry no firearms. Testimony comes from Ohio, from Oregon, from Colorado, from Wisconsin, from Connecticut and from Canada that prisoners--even low-grade prisoners and negroes--respond surprisingly to this treatment; that escapes are few, and that there is a great improvement in the industry and efficiency of the prisoners. The incentive to the prisoners to make good is partly an increased allowance for good time; partly, in some States, a small cash wage; partly the desire of the prisoners for the freer life outside the walls, and partly a response to the confidence shown in them by their officers. Success in employing prisoners on the roads by modern methods depends first upon finding a road manager who is interested in his men and believes in the possibility of exciting their interest and loyalty for the work. It depends, second, upon creating such living and working conditions as will keep the men fit for a good day’s work. That means good food, good cooking, comfortable sleeping quarters, opportunity for proper recreation, good laundry work and bathing facilities, and, above all, the treatment of the prisoners by their officers as reasonable human beings. The plan of roadside camps, portable cages, chain gangs, ignorant and cruel guards armed with shotguns and discretionary power will not secure cheerful and efficient work. THE INDIANA PENAL FARM. [This article, by Henry A. Montgomery, Staff Correspondent of the _Detroit News_, was incited by the plan of Detroit to build a large and expensive House of Correction. What other communities or States are doing will be told by Mr. Montgomery.] GREENCASTLE, IND., March 13.--“Reform them? No, you don’t reform them. You can’t change a man’s real nature. But lots of them are not naturally bad. We get the alcohol out of their systems, give them all they can eat, make them keep regular hours and do a man’s work, and the good in them has a chance to show itself.” That is the way Charles E. Talkington, superintendent of the Indiana State Farm, defined reformation.