An idea of the value of the scholastic instruction in our State prisons may be gathered from the fact that four convicts--three Italians, and one Russian--who came before the Board at the Sing Sing meeting in April had learned the English language and reading and writing during the periods of their incarceration. Three other Italian convicts, who had begun their sentences entirely ignorant of the language and had not progressed so far as to be able to answer the questions of the chairman of the Board without the aid of an interpreter, made not the slightest protest on being informed that they would be retained a little longer in prison until they should be somewhat improved in reading, writing and speaking English. Ten or twelve of the men paroled on this particular occasion had learned trades in Sing Sing. Entering the prison as unskilled common laborers, they left it fairly qualified in trades that pay good wages. Provision for the indeterminate sentence in the State of New York was first inaugurated by a law enacted in 1889, which merely permitted such sentences in all cases and made no distinction between the first offenders and recidivists. The early hostility of the judiciary to the parole system is illustrated by the fact that during the twelve years’ life of this law, from 1889 to 1901, only 115 indeterminate sentences were imposed in all the criminal courts of the State, involving 13,000 convicts committed to its prisons, not one subject of an indeterminate sentence in all these years being sent to Sing Sing from New York city, which furnishes about 70 per cent of all commitments to the State prisons. In 1901 the indeterminate sentence was made mandatory for first offenders in all cases where the maximum penalty was five years or less, but it was not until 1907 that it became mandatory in all cases of first offenders, with the exception of those convicted of murder in the first degree. In 1909 a law was enacted applying the parole system to all first offenders then in prison under definite sentences. The system that bears the name of “probation” is one which has grown to its present proportions and importance since 1901 through the enactment of no less than forty general and local statutes. First applied only to adults and in cities, its benefits have been wisely extended to children and to all the courts of the State. By legislation in 1909 a measure took effect which enables boards of supervisors to fix salaries for probation officers, and during last year fifteen counties availed themselves of this privilege, and others are following their example. The system does not exist and is not designed for habitual criminals and hardened recidivists, but only for first offenders; or, at least, for such whose personal characteristics and history give promise of good results from its restraining and guiding influence. _Reforms Inside Prisons._