It Is certainly a wise' child who has waited to be born till now. The reflection is prompted not only by the children's playing-folds but by Sir Samuel Hoare's announcement. lof the gort of new prisons which are to be built, particularly for women.
Pentonvilie the famous is to be pulled down and will become a housing site. Somewhere westwards of London about 100 acres of ground are to be secured, where women prisoners will live in groups of smallish /houses, each under the charge of a separate housemistress, There will be much open air work,'a farm, garden, perhaps hot-houses, games and physical training. One would not appear heartless. But it does strike tone that the inmates (one hardly dares call -them prisoners). will be considerably better off than thousands whose unaccountable honesty keeps them out of the clutches of the law. Dickens, least of all men unsympathetic with the under-dog, scathingly satirized a prison run on similarly luxurious lines in "David Copper-field." To reform the criminal not to punish him is always the laud~ able aim. And what has come of it?
London's crime statistics last year were a record, It is a disheartening thought.
In marked contrast with present tendencies, Pentonville, considered for our modern gaolbirds, was the admiration of Europe when it vas built a century ago, embodying all the Tatest ideas. But most prison-did not stay there long. It was largely used for those who were waiting tobe transported to Australia,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.