The Indeterminate Sentence

Short prison terms can reinforce the habits they are meant to change, Charles Dudley Warner argues. His essay examines people who make crime their occupation and the institutions that repeatedly confine and release them. He proposes an indeterminate sentence with no fixed end date, so that a prisoner's release depends on evidence of reform. Questions of public safety, expense and education shape his case for changing the system.

Warner also asks how judges can fairly assess individual guilt within a code that assigns set penalties to offences. He would place the care of prisoners in expert hands and turn prisons into reformatories. He insists that detention without a time limit must provide opportunities for people to change their habits. For readers interested in the history of criminal justice, the essay offers a focused argument about punishment, responsibility and the conditions under which a person should return to society.