BORSTAL TREATMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 46, 23 February 1929, Page 10

BORSTAL TREATMENT.

CONDITIONS AT WAIKERIA,

A FURTHER COMPLAINT. INMATE'S DESCRIPTION". (By EX-INMATE.) "Waikeria Borstal Institution has been much in the limelight in your paper recently, and I would like to further enlighten you as to conditions there." "Your correspondent 'Hard Labour' describes the sanitary conditions as 'deplorable.' and with this I am in full accord. "The lavatory refuse, formerly tipped over a bank near the main building, is now emptied into holes near the building on the other side, but to my mind the worst feature there its the condition of the yards around the lavatories, where the men and boys must exercise. Refuse I r»m the buildings is casuallv emptied into these lavatories, while dirty water, etc.. is emptied into large containers. These containers are "covered with a bit of sacking while they are being wheeled away, and the slopping own of the contents givcts rise to conditions on a hot day which can be better imagined than described. The water taps supplying water for the cells in both yards are immediately adjoining the lavatories, and utensils' are rinsed out under these taps. I have only seen a boy in charge of the sanitary department. and he usually becomes very dirty owing to the nature of his duties. In addition to sanitation he 'cleans' tin; wash-basins, taps, etc., and assists in •cleaning' some of the food utensils. This sort of job would appear to combine well in gaol, and remember he is under very little, if any, supervision.

; "The slaughter house was, if anything j worse than the yards in iiot weather, Lj and the meat suffers accordingly, andj ; 1 might add, the prisoners also." From J the colour of the meat (green) at times, i{ I can imagine the butcher's shop in a j like state. A senior ofiicer publicly told i one prisoner who complained about the :j quantity of meat that the allowance was ooz for breakfast and ;Uoz for dinner at j night. This included fat and bone. The .1 regulations say IGoz per diem uncooked :! weight. At the time of the typhoid j epidemic there was a great cleaning out, spraying and fumigation, but the mis.l chief was done, and it is indeed a won,j der it never happened Jong ago. J

Little Sympathy For Sick,

"Inn ates may not be afraid to parade sick, but they receive so little sympathy or consideration at the hands of the officers as a whole, and it is so loathsome being shut up in a stuffy cell that one works as long as one can. Eventually one has to go to bed and ask for something. The officer states he can do nothing without permission, and either neglects to obtain it or forgets to supply the want afterwards. This often happens. Under proper supervision one of the men who died of typhoid would have been in bed two days before he did go, instead of working right through; while another man who died of spinal meningitis (I believe) last year, would have received medical attention earlier, but the senior officer thought he was malingering, and did not hesitate to tell him so in the presence of other prisoners. I maintain that it is not only the duty of officers when in doubt to obtain medical advice, but they must take no chance whatever in cases of sickness among men in absolute charge of whom they are placed. To speak of wellventilated cells is absurd when one has seen the cell house, housing IS men in single colls, with ceilings of expanded metal, no windows or openings for air. light coming via the expanded metal, from skylights in the hall, which have not been opened for years, and air from the doors at the ends of the hall. If the air becomes foul anywhere it spreadsj over the adjoining cells. This cell-house is the skeleton in the cupboard, as it has never been inspected for years. I understand. bv the liish prison officials or visiting committees. According to regulations. blankets should be aired once a week, but I have never seen this done at Waikeria until recently, and then only by men in huts who have special facilities. A Prisoner and His Prison. An inmate interviewed at Waikeria by a "Star" reporter uttered a lot of half-truths. "He has never seen seen one vegetable served only." Not if he counts potatoes as a vegetable. Excluding this, he has rarely seen anything else. Perhaps two vegetableabout four times a year. 1 should strongly suspect that no reporter would get the chance under any circumstances, and particularly when he had come to investigate specific complaints, of having an interview with an inmate, unless the opinions of the latter had been quietly yet thoroughly felt out beforehand. And how long had this man been in paol ? Kot long enough. I should think, for his experience, despite three gaols, to be worth much. Bluntly, I think that the inmate's stated opinions are worthless. It is • highly suspicious to hear - a prisoner extoll

the virtues of his prison. The food is wholesome enough if supervision saw that the meat is fresh and vegetables good, that the menu is changed, and that food when cooked was eatable. TJ 4 hard-working officer who supervised the cooking of the Christmas dinner (a great treat) should have his work lightened in other directions to enable him to devote more time to this. Further, it should be seen that the utensils are properly cleaned before food is placed on or in them, and meals should be kept hot for men working late. If the cooks do no prove satisfactory after a repriman tliey should be changed until suitable men are found. The "savoury nunce mentioned by writer of "Durance no vile" is ofttimes so savoury that i would run away if it were not in £J° •

Unsympathetic Warders. "Most of the officers there are overtly disloyal to the superintendent, while te are intelligent or sympathetic in e dealings with prisoners. This s 1 o« thing does not encourage the right sp and leads to many misunderstanding with the principal, who always 6 "PI 10 ! his officers (publicly, at any ra'te), generally to the detriment ot prisoner concerned. Men of this C "U, would be better placed in Mount Gaol, and more intelligent men, to their chief, and in harmony with surroundings and the objects ot Borstal Act, by filling their pla«>' would tend to inculcate respect authority into the minds of those > having a bit of "go" in them, are o nearly mutinous. But on the <jue» of officers. I agree with "Haid La , that the best class of man is " ot fo " under present conditions w tlie P service in Xcw Zealand.