less than one year, and it is left to some administrative board
to determine later how much, if any, longer the confinement shall
last, in view of the circumstances of the offense, the character
of the prisoner, and his conduct since his sentence.

A considerable and increasing group of penologists is pressing
upon our legislatures the extension of the principle of the
"indeterminate sentence" by removing the limit of a
_minimum_ term. It is doubtful if such a change would
satisfy the constitutional requirement of a trial by jury. That
in its nature involves a trial before a judge and a sentence
imposed by the court upon the verdict. Can that be deemed a
judicial sentence to imprisonment which is a sentence to
imprisonment during the pleasure of certain administrative
officials? Judgments are to ascertain justice. To do this they
must be themselves certain. In a purely indeterminate sentence
there is no certainty until it has been made certain by the
subsequent action of the administrative authorities. It may turn
out to be imprisonment for life, and the advocates of this mode
of action frankly say that such ought to be the disposition of
all incorrigible and habitual criminals. If so, ought not the
fate to be meted out to them by judicial authority? Can anything
less than that be considered as due process of law?

An experienced and able judge seldom makes any serious error in
grading the punishment of offenders who have been tried before
him. The sentence is not pronounced until they have been fully
heard as to all circumstances of extenuation, nor until the
government has been heard both as to these and as to any
circumstances of aggravation. The sentence, if the offense be a