PRISON SYSTEM

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 64, Issue 30, 15 November 1943, Page 5

PRISON SYSTEM

FORMER MINISTER’S CRITICISM. SIR HUBERT OSTLER'S VIEWS (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Nov. 12. “I was both interested and surprised to read the criticism by Dr. D. G. McMillan of our prisons and Borstals,” said Sir Hubert Ostler, a retired Judge of the Supreme Court, commenting on the recent address by Dr. McMillan to the Howard League for Penal Reform in Dunedin.

“I served for 18 years as a Judge and for the last four years of that period as chairman of the Prisons Board (part of that time Dr. McMillan held the portfolio as Minister in charge of Prisoners). Hence I may claim to some knowledge of the administration. Incidentally, although closely associated with the work of the department in my capacity as chairman of the Prisons Board I do not recall any material changes being effected during Dr. McMillan’s ministry. “The simple fact is that Dr. McMillan did not and does not understand the principles and purpose of criminal law. Prisons are not intended to be places of comfort and amusement at the public expense, but are for the protection of society. An uninformed and emotional reformer, by encouragement of a sense of self-pity and the undermining of the discipline so necessary to the undisciplined harms the prospects of reformation as much as a brutal warder. Unhappily, while the latter is extinct, the former flourishes. Result of Interference. “The most serious result of misguided interference in these matters is the inevitable tendency to break down discipline in the prisons. In this regard it is significant that coincident with or shortly following Dr. McMillan’s term of office there occurred the most brutal and criminal assaults on warders in the history of our prisons.

“When I became chairman of the Prisons Board I was familiar with the criticisms of our prison system made by the Howard Penal Reform League and others. I took up my new office with an entirely open mind determined to see and judge for myself what truth there was in the charges made.

“My considered opinion after seeing the work of the prison system, for myself for four years is that the criticism is unjustified. It is entirely untrue to say that no effort is made to teach prisoners to become better citizens, and it is equally untrue to say that all that is demanded is implicit obedience even to pin-priclcing, trivial demands.

Service of Psychiatrists

“Dr. McMillan emphasises the need for proper examination by competent persons of those committed to prison. He does not appear to be aware that the department has available the services of the psychiatrists on the staff of the mental hospitals throughout New Zealand. The Prisons Board has the advantage that one of its members, 'Dr. T. G. Gray, Director-General of the Mental Hospitals Department, is himself a trained psychiatrist and alienist.

“Dr. McMillan states that there is little provision for any form of recreation and no social halls or other central place in our prisons. In practically every penal institution in the country there is a common room. So far as the material comfort of the prison is concerned my only doubt is as to whether our prisons have not been made too comfortable. “My experience as a Judge and on the Prisons Board has convinced me that under our modern system our criminals are not manufactured in gaol so much as through lack of discipline in their home life and in their youth. I cannot agree that in the administration of our prison system the country is hopelessly out of date. “Indeed I think our prison system compares favourably with that of any country in the Empire. After a close inspection with an open mind of our system of prison administration, in my opinion it A; a branch of the Public Service of which this country may well be proud.”

REBUILDING SCHEME NEEDED,

(P.A.) DUNEDIN, November 14. “The Prisons Board, of which Sir Hubert Ostler was chairman, is purely a sentence-reviewing authority and has no say in prison administration,” said Dr. D. G. McMillan, in replying to Sir Hubert Ostler to-night. “That the Judge has little real knowledge of our prisons is shown by his statement that practically all have a common room. This is not so, even in the lai’gest, at Mount Eden. “It is not surprising, therefore, that he does not recall any material changes during my Ministry. His innuendo that my administration was responsible for the Mount Eden trouble is not worthy of him. The inquiry revealed first, that the routine followed bad been the same for 20 years; second, that it was not the routine laid down in the rules, and, third, that had the routine laid down in the rules been followed no break-out could have occurred.

“Psychiatrists, although available, are not used as fully as desirable,” continued Dr. McMillan. “Mentally infirm offenders are. imprisoned and released by the Prisons Board for implicit obedience, which is the greatest virtue a prisoner can possess, only to go through the cycle again arid again before a thorough examination. “I took over Hie portfolio of Prisons with an open mind, determined to see and judge for myself tho validity of the criticism, much of

which I found to he substantiated. What I could 1 rectified, but to accomplish big things in prison reform needs a comprehensive rebuilding scheme which no Minister could ask for in war-time, and a change of heart and mental attitude on the part of those permanently in charge of the prison system. Those with knowledge of our prisons will know what I mean when they read the Judge’s doubts ‘ whether our prisons have not been made too comfortable.’ “After the mentally infirm have been weeded out, a term of imprisonment should be used to build the sehrespect of prisoners and teach them that the community is their friend and not their enemy.”