Ohio there are fourteen societies for discharged convicts, and some of these societies are organized with committees in every district of the canton in which they are established. But the most valuable and distinctive feature of the Swiss system is the appointment of a person, called a patron, who makes the acquaintance of a prisoner before he is discharged, and who becomes his guardian after his liberation. This system of personal and friendly supervision is infinitely better than alms-giving, and its value has been shown in the great reduction of recommitments to prison in the districts where it is best established. These foreign societies are supported by government aid as well as by private subscriptions, and a part of their work consists in guarding the earnings which the prisoner has accumulated during his detention against wasteful expenditure.
The value of prison libraries was recognized, and the desirability of a weekly publication in prisons under the special control of the administration. In this country good examples of such publications are furnished by The Summary, of Elmira, N. Y., and Our Paper, of Concord, Mass.
Alcoholism was regarded as a growing danger, especially with reference to its influence on criminology. Reports from inebriate asylums in Europe show that habitual drunkenness may be treated with success if the victim can be retained sufficiently long. With a view of reducing intemperance in Russia, the Government has already begun to acquire the entire monopoly of the liquor traffic. Among preventive measures, the congress commended the regulation and the limitation of saloons, the multiplication of temperance cafés, the establishment of inebriate asylums, and the association of public authority with private agitation in the temperance cause.
No discussions were more earnest than those which related to juvenile offenders. The presence of women of experience in this and every other section of the congress was warmly encouraged, and they were gallantly welcomed by M. Pols, vice-president of the commission, who frankly said that the solution of these questions could not advance without the co-operation of women. The multiplied aspects of vagabondage and mendicity, the subject of prostitution and the measures to be taken to break up the systematic trade carried on between various countries through the decoy of young girls, the establishment and regulation of houses of correction, the need of appropriate physical as well as mental education, the relation of parental responsibility and the question of farm school and agricultural colonies, the placing out of children in families, and the supervision of children thus placed were discussed as important phases of child-saving work.
