SPIES IN GAOLS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 103, 3 May 1930, Page 11

SPIES IN GAOLS.

INFORMATION TO WARDERS. PRISONS BOARD CRITICISED. "PERFUNCTORY OPERATIONS." That spying by one prisoner on another takes place in New Zealand prisons was a statement made at the Howard Penal Reform League meeting in Wellington... The speaker added that in Australia if a spy was discovered in the prison a melee was started, in which the offender was kicked to death. A proposal "that the Prisons Board should act only after receiving reports by a properly constituted psychological clinic and local welfare board" was supported by Mr. F. A. de la Mare, of Hamilton, who said that the Prisons Board, could only obtain information within the prison. The public were not protected by a report of good conduct from the warder, for a bad man outside might be u very good prisoner. From what he had been tod by men who had been in English prisons, one of the troubles in New Zealand prisons was that all kinds of spying went on. No Spying in Australia. There was no spying in English or Australian prisons. A man in prison here who had a chance of remission was not going to fall foul of the warder, with "whom he had to "make his marble good." He became -what prisoners called "a crawler," and gave information to the warder.. He (Mr. de la Mare) was informed that in Australian prisons a man was killed if he did that, for a melee would be created and the man kicked to death. They could pick a spy pretty quickly, and a piece of information would be passed on to him which was untrue. When the information came back they knew he was a spy. The consequence now was that a man dare not spy in an Australian prison. Remission of Sentence. So far as the report of the warder was concerned, it could not tell the Prisons Board anything which would justify letting the prisoner loose. Ihe fact that remission was granted soon went round the prison, and it crcatecl a great sense of injustice among the other prisoners, who felt that tno man with money or friends had a greater chance of remission than the man with no friends. That had been ascertained owing to offers which had been made to find work for certain men, and the league had to- recognise that there was something in it. A mental defectives' board and a psychological clinic would guarantee that the man to be liberated Avas fit for liberation. _ The leagua should protest every time it came together against a Prisons Board ■which acted as the present board dicl. He had no objection to the personnel, but it did not pretend to make any investigation. Mr. R. M. Laing: It used to. Social Investigation Needed. Miss 13. E. Baughan said indeterminate sentences only applied to habitual criminals, and she urged strongly that social investigation was as necessaiy as scientific investigation. As showing the little time that was given by the Prisons Board to the consideration at cases, she quoted a letter from an exprisoner, who said the board attended the prison in the morning, considered the cases of 60 men in less than two hours and was away by 12.30. mat was only two minutes to eaclr case. There was an intense feeling indignation against the Prisons Board and its perfunctory operation. The Chairman: It seems to me it would be better to go back to the old system of remission for good conduct. Miss Baughan: If the Prisons Board was operating properly it would be the bodv to protect the public. ■ The remit was carried.