What is being done by the Surrey Society is only a sample of the assistance rendered to discharged prisoners all over England.  It ought also to be stated that some of these Aid Societies undertake to look after the destitute families of persons committed to prison, and cases innumerable might be mentioned in which prisoners’ wives and children have been assisted and kept out of the workhouse until the release of the bread-winner.  Other societies again provide permanent homes for destitute offenders on their discharge from prison.  All that is required of persons making use of those homes is, that they shall earn as much as will cover a portion of the expense of providing them with food and shelter.  For this purpose work is always provided for them, or if they prefer it, they may find occupation outside and make the home a sort of temporary resting-place.  It is hardly necessary to add that Prisoners’ Aid Societies could effect much more if they were better supported by the public.  The organisation is there; the men to work it are there; the only impediment to their labours is a lack of funds.  If the possession of adequate funds enabled all the Prisoners’ Aid Societies to establish Homes for discharged prisoners, those institutions might be made of the greatest service to the cause of justice generally.  It would then be easy to get a return from them of the number of persons whose criminal life was due to sheer indolence, and magistrates would have far less hesitation in dealing with them than they do now.  At the present time, it is sometimes difficult to know whether an offender is willing to work if he had the opportunity, but the existence of prisoners’ homes would soon solve the question.  Reference to a man’s record in one of these institutions would at once place the magistrate in full possession of the facts, and he would be able to give judgment with a knowledge of the offender he does not now possess.  In this way many cruel mistakes might be avoided; and, on the other hand, many hardened offenders dealt with in a more effective manner.

The difficulty sometimes encountered by discharged prisoners in finding employment, as well as many other evils inseparable from imprisonment, has, in recent years, led an increasing number of jurists to the conclusion that every other method of punishment should, when the case at all admits of it, be exhausted before the gaol is resorted to.  “The very first principle of enlightened penology,” says Mayhew, “is to endeavour to keep people out of prison as long as possible, rather than thrust them into it for the most trivial offences.”  In many instances it is quite sufficient punishment for a first offender in a petty case to be publicly rebuked in the police court.  Such a rebuke preceded, as it generally is, by a night’s confinement in the police cells, is just as effective as a deterrent and far less likely to do permanent harm than a sentence of imprisonment.  It was something of this kind