Are We Approaching the Correctional Millennium,and If Not,Why Not?

Twenty-five years ago my collaborator, Harry Elmer Barnes, and I inscribed the text New Horizons in Criminology to Francis Fisher Kane and Albert G. Fraser. The inscription reads, after naming the two gentlemen: "who, by means of a modern and professional philosophy, are reinterpreting the spirit and realizing the objectives of the early reformers of the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons." It was Al Fraser who gave me encouragment to prepare the sesqui-centennial book They Were in Prison, that in a manner told the story of this venerable Society. In those early days, some thirty years ago, the writer accompanied Al Fraser to the several prisons of the Com monwealth and through him, was able to learn much of the philo sophy of what we now refer to as corrections, as interpreted by this man of deep insights. It is believed that the following essay dedicated to Albert G. Fraser speaks not only for the writer but reflects some of the philosophy and spirit of the man to whom we pay honor.