Excerpt from The Reformatory System in the United States: Reports Prepared for the International Prison Commission One advantage resulting from our system of local State government is, that a method or experiment which may be tried in one State is watched with curious interest in others, and sooner or later, if the experiment proves successful, those States are sure to embark in it. They may not reach the result by the same pathway, but they move in the same general direction and towards the same goal. This adop tion of successful experiments from State to State is not simply a matter of exact or servile imitation. Each State which borrows a law or an institution from its neighbors is very likely to modify it to some extent and to add what are deemed desirable improvements. Thus there is general resemblance with differentiation in methods or details. New York did not borrow its reformatory methods or ideas directly from Crofton the germ of the New York system was transplanted from Michigan. It was not the transplanting of a system but rather of a man which led to the rapid and remarkable development of the Elmira Reformatory. The head of that institution, Mr. Z. R. Brockway, who gained his early experience in Michigan, may truly be said to be the founder of the system as it has taken shape in the United States. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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Traces the history of prison reform in the United States, as the reformers attempt to set up a system that would deter further crime and rehabilitate convicts come into conflict with the need to punish and the inherent character of imprisonment.