ABSTRACT
Greg was only one of the many commentators who pondered at mid-century how best to deal with the fact that all prisoners would now be released back into English society. There were only four ways to defend the public. One was by incapacitation during the period of sentence; the second was to deter the criminal from offending in future by severity. The third was to effect a change in his character; the fourth was to liberate him in a way that would make future offending unnecessary. The criminal can only be reformed and secured in his reformation by the same four processes—by incapacitating him from crime during a term long enough to enable reforming and deterring influences to operate upon him.
