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157 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. i (1931)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0157 and id is 1 raw text is: FOREWORD THE riots and disturbances which have in recent years occurred in our prisons have served to focus public attention on our methods of dealing with criminals. Many persons have come to wonder if we have not, after all, been pursuing false idols. We have begun to lose faith in the mighty citadels of impenetrable walls which once made our prisons show places of civic architecture. We are realizing that they have failed in their task of protecting us against crime. True enough, the prison has come to be the last resort of penal treat- ment, when all other measures have proved wanting. This has made the prison's work a fearfully difficult one. Yet we are compelled to con- clude that, since the vast majority of prisoners will be returned to normal social life at the expiration of their sentences, our prisons must be ra- tionally adapted, in organization and functions, to the complicated task which faces them. If this means the renunciation of vindictive theories and policies, let us renounce them. If it means more science in penal treatment, let us have more science. The fact is that our prisons must become effective and dynamic agencies of social protection which, if humanly possible, will return the prisoners to society better men than when they entered the institutions. To those who are looking for information on the work of our prisons, this volume is offered-not in the expectation that it will remove all doubts or answer all questions, but rather in the hope that it may stimulate thought by its presentation of problems which require solution. EDwIN H. SUTHERLAND THORSTEN SELLIN

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