PRISON REFORM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 65, 18 March 1930, Page 19

PRISON REFORM.

ENCOURAGING RESULTS. ! OLD SYSTEM CONDEMNED. • AN EXPERT'S VIEWS (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) ( " ■ HAMILTON, this day. "Durance vile" has given place in New Zealand to "durance hopeful," according to Dr. L. H. Gribben, for some -years superintendent of Waikeria Borstal Institute. - Speaking before a gathering of Eotarians at Hamilton yesterday, on the modern conception of the criminal, Dr. Gribben said that under the old prison system, where the prisoners were set to picking oakum and walking the treadmill, more criminals were made inside than outside the prisons. There was, he added, nothing so depressing or calculated to make a man desperate as the knowledge that the work he was doing ■was utterly futile. "If you want to kill a man's interest in life, stifle his social instincts," said the doctor. Yet that was what the old prison system in many cases did. The modern treatment _ of the criminal, he held, was a great im: provement on the old from almost every standpoint, although there might be a tendency on the part of some organisations advocating prison reform to carry things a little too far the other way. The doctor insisted that discipline was the main essential of any prison system. It must not be forgotten that a criminal was such by reason of the fact that he lacked discipline in some direction and She got into gaol becauge of that fact. Some modern enthusiasts for prison reform overlooked this, however. The speaker paid a tribute-to--the late - Mr. Charles Matthews, former Comptroller of Prisons, as the pioneer of prison reform in New. To him was attributable amenities of prison life and the- gleam of hope which shone for the modern prisoner in New Zealand. It was he who instituted the "honour system," which was a complete reversal of the old system under which a man's honour was never put to the test. Formerly the prisoner was watched and guarded, and the respan* sibility of holding him was with th? warders. Dr. Gribben said he had the pleasure of working the first of the institutions under the honour system^

and the results had proved remarkable. As soon as an inmate had gut used' to his new surroundings he was placed on his honour. He was entrusted with a certain freedom and to do certain work, and was given a measure of'responsibility. Soon the man who hitherto had been spending his life dodging the law, who was furtive, evasive and indirect, lifted hie head ; and grew gradually square and outright. The honour system had in fact proved most encouraging to both the officials and prisoners. The proportion of men prisoners who left the institution and who we v e found work and who did not return, was, he said, very large. The.effect of environment as a factor in the making of criminals was emphasised by the speaker, who said that a criminal could reform under present prison conditions, whereas his social life outside the prison had bred trime in him. The doctor r Ciaimented upon the difficulty which 'the prison authorities experienced in finding employment for discharged prisoners, owing to the reluctance of employers to engage such men. A3 a community the men who assembled in the gaols were most interesting and were sportsmen in the best sense of the term. After all'it required grit to take a chance against long odd 6 like most of them had done. The sense of honour in reaction to the trust reposed in them was also great, and he thought excelled that to be found in the average assemblage of respectable citizens. The speaker also referred to the keen sense of honour possessed by the average prisoner. He paid a tribute to the work of the Prisons Board, which body, he though:, had thoroughly justified* its existence.