Excerpt from Prisons, Police and Punishment: An Inquiry Into the Causes and Treatment of Crime and CriminalsThe last Prison Blue Book (the Report of the Commissioners of Prisons and the Directors of Convict Prisons for 1903-4), while it shows an appreciable advance and improvement in the management of our penal establishments, reveals also how very much there is still waiting to be done. Officialism, as we know, is sadly slow to move; and we are yet a long way from getting at the root of all this matter, namely, the transformation of the Criminal into a useful citizen, and the extinction of Recidivism. Penology, though made much of as a science on the Continent and in the United States, is little studied in Britain; and there is little doubt that in some respects even Russian and Siberian prisons are more humanely conducted than ours.The following chapters are a small contribution to the subject. It is easy to see, for any one who looks into the heart of the people to-day in our islands, that deliberate criminality and perversely anti-social instinct, though of course present, are not so very widespread. The immense majority of cases that pass through our courts are cases arising out of sheer need, or wretched education and surroundings, and would disappear with the establishment of decent social conditions.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com