Locking a man up for committing a crime does not always cure him. It
is now proven that affixed penalties to certain crimes accomplishes
practically nothing, for it is based on a wrong principle. The length
of confinement ought, confessedly, to be adjusted to the needs of
the prisoner. He should not be discharged from his moral hospital
until there is reasonable assurance that he is cured. He certainly
should not be turned loose on society, on the mere expiration of a
formal sentence, when it is known he will begin anew on his old life.
Protection to society, as well as the reformation of the criminal,
call for the retention of the latter until he can be trusted with his
liberty, and affords proof that he is fitted to take his place in the
world as a useful, law-abiding citizen. This system alone permits the
fullest scope to reformatory methods, and leaves to the court the
right of sentencing indefinitely, and to the tribunal which has to do
with the prisoner's release, to say when there is reasonable ground
for faith that if discharged he will not prove either a burden or
menace to society. Where conduct and character afford no such grounds
he should be incarcerated for life, just as we would retain hopeless
lunatics in asylums.