g6 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
nature of the case, it cannot be delegated to the municipalities. A reformatory conducted on approved lines is a costly institu- tion ; it requires, for many reasons, an extensive equipment. The cornerstone of the reformative system is industrial training, and a cardinal principal in its administration is the individual treat- ment of convicts. A reformatory can achieve success only under the management of skilled experts, who are thoroughly versed in the approved modern systems of prison discipline, in the meth- ods employed and the results attained ; who have tact in dealing with prisoners and insight in observing their individual charac- teristics ; they must have the power of detecting the special weak- ness and the peculiar aptitude of each prisoner, and must adapt the treatment to the individual requirements of each case. This demands an extensive variety of industrial trades and employ- ments, fitted to widely differing capabilities and each of these industrial departments must be manned with a corps of compe- tent instructors and overseers. Again, in many cases it is found that the criminal tendency can be traced to some physical defect, or to some abnormal, or arrested, development of the mind or of the moral sense. In treating such cases, some most interesting experiments made at Elmira have demonstrated that a sane body tends to develop a sane mind; strengthening of the body has been followed by brightening of the mind. To this end, baths, massage, and athletic exercises have worked wonders, and Elmira has for some years been equipped with Turkish baths and a large gymnasium. To effect a rounded development, intellectual and moral education are an essential accompaniment of industrial training, and schools of trades must be supplemented by schools of letters, all under the management of skilled instructors.
Enough, perhaps, has been said to show that an effective reformatory prison involves an expensive plant and a large and varied equipment ; more than this, it must be manned by a corps of experts who know how to handle convicts with a single view to their reformation. This is too large an enterprise for a munici- pality to undertake; it is quite beyond municipal resources, except in the case of a few very large cities; it is outside the proper scope of a municipality which resembles a business cor-
