The professor probably has in mind the experiments conducted by Dr. Wiley on government employees at Washington. But submission to such treatment was voluntary, and the work was under competent supervision. That such favorable auspices could be guaranteed in an average prison is open to doubt. One finds a spirit more human than that of the Harvard professor in the warden of the state prison at Walla Walla, Wash. The latter declares that the striped suit and the lock step are undesirable relics of an outlived past. He has put his charges into plain gray clothes, with no distinguishing mark beyond the prison number, and has abolished the lock step altogether. If those two antiquated features represented affronts to the dignity of human nature, the compulsory consumption of poison might reasonably be held to represent still another. Its introduction might lay the base of a new error and abuse, which itself would have to be abolished in turn. ---------- _Life Prisoners Studied._—A thorough study of the subject of life prisoners has been made by Warden Henry Town, of Waupun, Wis. It is interesting to note the kindly feeling held generally by prison officials toward the “lifer.” Experience proves that the average character of life prisoners is higher than the short-term men, and fewer return again to crime, when given their liberty. This fact has increased the sentiment favorable to paroling life prisoners after they have served a reasonable period. The great majority of officials have expressed themselves as favorable to laws of this kind, and several states have already adopted them with satisfactory results. ---------- _A Jail Catechism._—The following recommendations, made by Commissioner Frank Wade, of the New York Commission on Prisons, after an inspection of the Orleans County jail, may have a general applicability to the jails of the county: “That more beds and mattresses be placed in the lockup; that tramps and loafers, not under arrest, be not allowed to mingle with the prisoners detained for trial; that a jail yard be provided at the county jail, and that work be provided for time prisoners; that all the beds in the jail be equipped with new mattresses; that the walls of the corridors and cells be repainted and that the corridors and cells be kept clean; that the bed clothing be regularly washed and kept clean, in which event sheets and pillow cases should be washed; that a steel ceiling be placed over the wooden joists in the kitchen; that there be light in every cell and that there be a new lock on every floor which cannot be reached or tampered with by the prisoners.” ----------