In the last year 2,195 boys, nearly all of whom had appeared in children’s court, came under the influence of the big brothers; of this number only ninety had to be brought a second time before the court. Of the total, 1,208 boys were cared for by the movement in 1910; 840 more were arraigned in children’s court this year on various charges; 117 came from institutions, and 1,202 applied at the office for advice or to seek employment. All for whom places were obtained proved efficient. Permanent homes outside the city were obtained for thirty-seven, and but one could not withstand the lure of the city and moving picture shows, and returned. _Making Prisoners Useful._--At the federal aid good roads convention of the American automobile association in Washington on January 16 and 17, 1912, a session will be devoted to the question of the utilization of prisoners in road building; speakers will be heard from the national committee on prison labor and the American federation of labor. To increase the output of the state nurseries of New York to 12,000,000 trees per year, the state conservation commission will establish a nursery at the Great Meadows prison at Comstock. A class in road building, composed of more than 200 long term convicts, has been formed at the Kansas penitentiary at Lansing, and this fall and winter they will learn the fine points of highway construction and building boulevards around the prison. Next spring it is hoped to have a gang of at least 250 men, all experts, who will be put to work on the river boulevard which is to connect Leavenworth and Kansas City. Warden John E. Hoyle, of the California state penitentiary, is planning to manufacture safes by skilled workmen serving sentences for bank robberies and safe blowing. In trying out the plan he has secured admirable results, as proof of which he displays a vault in his office which was reconstructed from worn out articles by prisoners under sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment for robbing a safe. A man who is a skilled mechanic will take charge of that division of the machine shop where the manufacture of safes will be carried on. _Trouble in Ireland._--A strange fault has been found with Irish jails. The general prisons board reports that the institutions have become so comfortable and attractive that short sentences, far from having a reformatory effect, seem to prompt the person once in prison to get back to the domicile as soon as he can. These short sentence prisoners are not in long enough to receive the value of any real reform and are out just long enough to keep themselves confirmed in their vicious habits. So it happens that the board has recommended longer sentences for two reasons, one that some real reform may be inculcated and the other that jail may be made so tedious that culprits will be less ready to seek the institution as a haven of snug refuge and ease for a time.