In spite of the fact that the effect of parole boards has been to lengthen sentences, and in spite of my personal belief that they should be materially shortened, I am confident that the parole system should be maintained with the hope of improvement and the chance of gradually educating the public until sentences can be naturally shortened, and the care and control of prisoners be placed on a scientific and humane basis.

A board of pardons and paroles should be made up of men who are really interested in their work.  They should carefully keep up with the literature on crime and punishment; they should be scientists in all matters touching their work, and they should be men of humane feelings.  It is too much to expect that all of this can be found in a board for a long time to come, but with good sense and the right attitude of mind the board could employ the skill that it does not now have.  Every prisoner should be the subject of attention, not of spying, but of friendly interest that would inspire confidence and trust,—­such an interest as a wise doctor has in a patient.  This attention would in most cases gain the confidence of the prisoner and make it possible to find out how far he could be trusted, at the same time showing the treatment and environment he needed for future development.  Where this confidence could not be had, safety would probably require a longer term.  Most men respond to kind treatment.  The criminal has so long looked on the world as his enemy, especially the official world, that he hesitates to trust anyone.  Still the really sympathetic and kindly man who is honestly trying to help him will sooner or later get his confidence and cooeperation.  Every prisoner should understand that all of those around him are anxious to educate him so as to fit him for society and to put him in an environment where he can live.  Even then there would be mistakes, and a portion of the prisoners would be so defective or imperfect that they never could be released; but under proper treatment many would be restored to association with their fellow-men.

It will be a long time before it will be safe to make sentences entirely indeterminate.  Boards cannot be trusted to give such time and work and judgment to their task as will prevent cases of great injustice.  Until such time shall come either the statutes must fix an unbending and arbitrary time which takes no account of individual cases, or it must be left with the court or jury.  Clearly the jury should fix the maximum, leaving the members of the board to reduce the penalty if they deem it wise.

Most men are forgotten when they go to prison, especially if they have no active friends on the outside.  No board can fully keep in mind all the inmates of a large prison.  It may be that by some system their attention is automatically called to the man at certain times, but this matters very little.  Someone should know he is there and why, and who he is.  He should not be an abstract, but a concrete