PRISON CONDITIONS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 64, Issue 33, 18 November 1943, Page 5

PRISON CONDITIONS

EX-JUDGE AND EX-MINISTER.

DR. McMiLLAN’S REJOINDER.

(P.A.) DUNEDIN, November 17. A further reply to Sir Hubert Ostler’s criticism of his statement ’on the subject of prison reform was made to-night by Dr. D. G. McMillan. “Sir Hubert Ostler’s deductions that I was responsible for the Mount Eden episode are so fantastic,” Dr. McMillan said, “that it is not surprising that he has had to give them a semblance of reality by statements' quite contrary to fact. His statements that I ‘went to vai'ious prisons accompanied by only a stenographer’ sounds all right, and gives his story the right atmosphere, but the plain fact, is that it is completely untrue. Similarly, his fitting of my 1940 statement out of its context and background is as misleading as was his reference to my use of the word ‘Mr’ in reference to a prisoner in a letter to a member of Parliament. “My statement in 1940 was made in reply to suggestions that the escape was made possible by changes I had made in prison routine. I pointed out, as in my last reply to him, that the routine followed at the time of the escape was the same as had been followed for the last 20 years, and in following usage the warders could not he accused of lacking care; but tile fact remains that it was not the routine originally laid down, which would, had it been followed out, have prevented the escape. Mount Eden Episode. “I repeat,” Dr. McMillan said, “that Sir Hubert Ostler’s effort to blame me for the outbreak is unworthy of him. These sporadic bursts of prison trouble occur in prisons in all countries at times, for example the last riot at Dartmoor, and prison reform, provided it does not involve lack of vigilance, is the least potent cause of discontent. “In his report on the Mount Eden episode, the Controller - General •♦of Prisons said the break was a sporadic happening, an ever-present contingency in a gaol such as Mount Eden. In reference to those concerned, the Inspector of Prisons said (I will use letters in place of the prisoners’ names) : A was a persistent escapee from a mental hospital; B has escaped many times (I wonder what Minister, or what reforms Sir Hubert Ostler blames on these occasions?); and C and D are a type prepared to go to any length to secure their liberty. These reports fit in badly with Sir Hubert Ostler’s contention that the episode was due to my administration, and his deduction is even more inexcusable, for, as he says, he had access to these reports and files. Use of Psychiatrists. “There is room for difference of opinion on the methods of penal reform, but it is a pity that the discussion should be clouded with misrepresentation. Again, I did not say that the services of psychiatrists, were never availed of. I said that they were not used sufficiently, and details of the case I quoted (one of many) would prove this to any but the most heavily blinkered. “So, too, with the common rooms and the uses to which they could he put. It is useless for me to enter into a long-range discussion with Sir Hubert Ostler on what he imagined I said at a meeting in Dunedin, but which, in point of fact, I did not say. Suffice it to say that in his report to me the superintendent of Mount Eden said: ‘ There is no common room at this institution which might be utilised for recreation purposes,’ and the Controller-General said: ‘At Mount Eden, apart from the school and the church, which ivould be unsuitable for the purpose, there is no common room,’ and similarly, in other prisons, rooms which Sir Hubert Ostler would call common rooms are completely unsuitable for recreational purposes. “One familiar with the dates of construction of the major prisons,” Dr. McMillan concluded, “cannot but be amused by Sir Hubert Ostler’s statement that ill every prison erected since 1920 special provision has been made for a common room.”