462 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
better benefits; when individual consciousness enlarges to "colo- nial consciousness;" when the principle of interdependency dawns, then is born that mutuality which is indestructible and socially most desirable.
As to the "criminaloid" class distributed through communi- ties it is not expected that any striking demonstration or formal statistics shall soon reveal a decided change of attitude. But, with the certainty of cause and effect, improvement in tone and probity must occur in response to the new spirit of the criminal laws; the new purpose of the courts and court pro- cedure; and to the renovated, more rational state-prison system; for to effect such changes necessitates a change in the general public sentiment, at once the final arbiter and most powerful molding social force.
AFFIRMATIVE PRINCIPLES
Under the indeterminate sentence it is intended, either by restraints or reformations, that prisoners once committed to our prisons shall then and thereafter be permanently withdrawn from the ranks of offenders. And the inherent evils of imprison- ment are such that only genuine reformations can afford the intended protection.
STANDARD AND CRITERION
To accomplish such protective reformations it is necessary, preliminarily, to fix upon the standard of reformatory require- ment, to adopt the criterion, to organize and perfect the plan of procedure. The standard fixed is, simply, such habitual behavior, during actual and constructive custody, as fairly comports with the legitimate conduct of the orderly free social class to which the prisoner properly belongs in the community where he should and probably will dwell. The criterion of fitness for release is precisely the same performance subjected to tests while under prison tutelage by the merit and demerit marking system which somewhat modified in strenuousness and with addition of its monetary valuations is similar to the marking system of our National Military Academy; and tested, also, by proper super-
