RELEASE OF PRISONERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 302, 21 December 1926, Page 6

RELEASE OF PRISONERS.

The report of the Prisons Board on three cases of release that have aroused public interest covers more than the actual cases. It contains an exposition of the principles that actuate the board and of its methods. The board is an uutconie of a new approach to the problem of the criminal. The old punitive and deterrent ideas have weakened, and it is held that the criminal should be riven more opportunity to rehabilitate himself. The board has wide powers of reviewing sentences, and this statement >ets forth The care that is Taken in r-onsidering cases, and the number and -lasses of prisoners that have been released. In five years, for example, 1303 lads were released from the Inveraircill Borstal Institute; between 1911 md Iftlo there were 6421 reviews of sases of reformative detention, and 2001 recommendations were made: in 355 ?ases of hard labour releases were rranted: 344 habitual criminals were : elea.sed on probation: and of 413 persons ordered to be detained under the Prerention of Crime Act, 1914. ninety per »enx were released. It will thus be ie*n that the cases specifically reviewed n this statement are only three among thousands. Whether the board's explanations will entirely satisfy the public is another natter. In two of these cases the ■.entenc-ed persons were released after jerring only a fraction of their sentence; n two influence was brought to bear "rom outside, and in the other it is i reasonable supposition that prisoner's Yiends and relatives, as they were quite •ntitled to do. interested themselves on lis behalf. In the erase of the youth Baker, vho was sentenced to be detained for . maximum of two years, and was almost mmediatelv released, it is stated that ipparently' the trivial nature of the >S>n«-s was not made clear to the judce. t is not stated, however, whether the udge was consulted on the question of -elease. In Bauir.e"? c-ase The judge held mt to accused The hope of being released >efore the expiration of the maximum •eriod. and the Prisons Board recommended release after only a few months if the sentence had been served. Stress s laid by the board upon the fact that •Jaume's' conduct in pri>on had been ■xemplary. that be had suffered greatly n the niin of his lepal career, that he ,vas promised by a relative help for a Yesh start, and that he had held .ositions of trust and not abused them. s this entirely convincing! It i≤ true he jury recoiiimended Baume to mercy ,n account of his youth, but it also jxpressly found that he had engineered ;he scheme of fraud for which he was ndicted. That recommendation was idopted by the judge in sentencing him ;o three years" maximum in the Borstal 'nstitutio'n. May it not be said that ±c reaction against the old penal system roes a little too far when a young man ■an be let off so lightly as to be given inly a few month's imprisonment for fraud? The fact that he was well educated and a law clerk is an aggravation Df the offence. The effect of such lem;ncy on other young men has to be considered. In the Mackay case, by far the most painful of all. a prisoner was released after serving nearly half his period oi fifteen years. The crime was attempted murder." and the motive was based upon sexual 'perversion. Prisoner had been mined, in domestic as well as professional life, by the case; Ms health was suffering: and there was an offer by a relative'Vo t-ake care of him. A man who has been gripped by such a perversion is to I* pitied, but the question is whether it is quite safe to let him loose in society. A wider question that many will ask is whether a prisoner with no friends to move K>r him outside has quite the same chance of release a= one who can command such help. The Baume ca>e would not have excited so much public attention had it ma. been felt that Baume mored in influential circles. Let it be clearly understood that there is nothing wrong in relatives and friend- of a prissoner = putting before the Prisons Board considerations favourable to that prisoner. The question is whether "obscure" prisoners are in this respect quite so favourably situated as others.