“A state reformatory for misdemeanants, where boys between the ages of 16 and 21 can be committed on an indeterminate sentence and receive instruction in trades and letters, is the most necessary and urgent prison reform under public discussion. These boys can now be committed only to penitentiaries and jails, except in the city of New York, and the penitentiary and jail associations and treatment confirm them in criminal habits. “The introduction and extension of industries in the penitentiaries is of vital importance. The present idleness of the prisoners in all the penitentiaries (except New York and Onondaga county penitentiaries, where the product can be increased fifty per cent) is tending to destroy their future usefulness and turn them into loafers. It is the duty of the state commission of prisons to present the evils of this idleness to the public and to endeavor to have the county authorities furnish employment for all the prisoners, as required by law. “The enactment of a law permitting the superintendent of prisons to market the product of the penitentiaries will be of great assistance. Staple industries could then be established and industries supplementary to those in the state prisons could be installed in the penitentiaries. “The proposition of paying prisoners or their families a portion of the earnings is involved in the development of the industries in the penitentiaries. At present the idleness and the heavy cost of maintenance will not permit such payments, but if the earnings of prisoners were materially increased a substantial percentage might be given.” * * * * * _Mr. Hall on Prison Reform._--Albert H. Hall, who has the gift of “speakin’ out in meetin’” to some purpose, outlined at the recent annual conference of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology what Minnesota has recently done, and recommended a law which has been enacted this year in his own state. He stated the provisions of that law, giving the reasons for each. All sentences, except for treason or murder in any of the degrees, shall be indeterminate: they shall be without limit of time. A board of parole is established, with the prison warden as a member ex-officio, to observe the prisoners, study them minutely, inquire into their history and watch their tendencies and their motives, and learn all about them. With this knowledge about them, the board establishes a record of marks, giving credit for merits and charge for derelictions, and on the basis of such register the board may release the prisoner on parole when it deems it expedient. The prisoners are to be provided with the rules and regulations, enabling them to score themselves, if they like, and giving them the right of a hearing before the board if they think the official score does not give them full credit.