Above the First Class is a Special Class composed of men whose conduct has been specially exemplary.  Men may be admitted into this class 12 months before their liberation; they may also be placed in positions of trust and responsibility in connection with the prison, and are able to earn a gratuity amounting to six pounds.  Such men are, as a matter of course, liberated at the expiration of three fourths of their sentence, which means that a term of five years’ penal servitude is reduced to somewhat under four years.

For female convicts all these rules are modified and mitigated.  Isolation is not so strictly enforced; a female may be liberated at the expiration of two thirds of her sentence; she may also earn four pounds instead of three, which is the highest sum men can receive, except the limited number in the Special Class.  Corresponding to the Special Class of male convicts, there is among the females what is called a Refuge Class.  Well-conducted women undergoing their first term of penal servitude are placed in this class, and nine months before the date on which they are due for discharge on ordinary licence, that is to say, nine months before they have finished two thirds of their sentence, they are released from prison and placed in some Home for females.  Two Homes which receive prisoners of this class are the Elizabeth Fry Refuge and the London Preventive and Reformatory Institution.  These Homes receive ten shillings a week for the care of each inmate confided to them by the State, and the time spent there is used as a gradual course of preparation for the re-entrance of these unfortunate people into ordinary life.  According to this method females, after a prolonged period of imprisonment, are not thrown all of a sudden upon the world; they re-enter it by slow and imperceptible stages, and are thus enabled to commence life afresh under hopeful and salutary conditions.

Male convicts on their release from penal servitude are, if they desire it, assisted to obtain employment by Discharged Prisoners’ Aid Societies.  The way in which assistance is rendered by the Royal Society, Charing Cross, which may be considered as a type of most of these societies, is as follows:—­

“The convicts on their discharge are accompanied to the office of the Society by a warder in plain clothes.  They are there received by the Secretary and the member of the Committee who, according to a fixed rota, attends daily for this purpose.  The first step is to give them a plentiful breakfast of white bread, bacon and hot coffee.  When this is finished they are invited to come forward and state their hopes and intentions as to the future.  Full particulars of the nature of the crime, the sentence, and the antecedents of the convict have been previously received from the prison, and this information is, of course, of the greatest value as a guide to dealing with the particular case.  After friendly discussion with the convict at one or more interviews, and further