JOBS FOR CRIMINALS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 172, 23 July 1929, Page 10

JOBS FOR CRIMINALS.

PREFERENCE ALLEGED. REINSTATEMENT OF OFFENDERS. " DRAWING THE LONG BOW." (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) DUNEDIN, this day. Are criminal probationers being given employment in preference to genuine unemployed? According to a newspaper correspondent the Dunedin city corporation works, railway goods stall's, and other undertakings are being overloaded with men who have been convicted of criminal offences and have been found positions by officials and organisations interested in the reinstatement of offenders in the community. The statement was widely contradicted when inquiries were made to-day. From an authoritative source it was learned that 82 probationers are employed in Dunedin;' but, according to Mr. Ralph Harrison, no complaints have been received by the General Labourers' Union from its members that probationers were being given unfair preference on jobs. "To say that men were stealing, so as to be taken before the Court, placed on, probation, and found work, would be to draw the long bow," said a social worker. In his opinion only a few isolated cases of preference being given probationers over others could be found. He was, gradually being convinced that most of the unemployed were not keen on hard work.