MAKING GOOD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 189, 12 August 1938, Page 3

MAKING GOOD.

BOARD PLEASED.

PAROLLED PRISONERS.

PRISON LISTS DECREASE.

Recording that there has been a steadydecline in the prison population in recent years, the annual report of the Prisons Board states that from year to vear the percentage of successes (the offenders who "make good") remains fairly constant —but that the results, having regard to the nature of the material dealt with, are more satisfactory. During 1937, 987 cases were considered by the board as compared with 1322 in tlie previous year.

"The 1937 figures of cases considered are the lowest recorded since 1921," it i? stated, "and are a definite reflection of the steady decline in the prison population in recent years." Steady Improvement. The board expresses satisfaction that a reasonable number of "habitual criminals'' are able to rise above their pasts and again become law-abiding and useful citizens. The success of the policy of tightening up in the matter of the release of persistent prisoners was indicated in the figures, which had shown a steady improvement in the past six vear?. The number in this class who had remained in Xew Zealand and refrained from further offending had risen from 17 per cent in 1931 to 23 per cent in 1937. In the opinion of the board it is a matter of considerable satisfaction that, of the total number released after undergoing sentences of Borstal detention and reformative detention or imprisonment with hard labour, approximately 21 per cen4; only have been reconvicted or failed to comply with the conditions of their license. "To effect complete reformation in every case must be the final objective of every system," it is stated, "but it will at once be obvious that the vagaries of human nature will always, to a certain degree, prove an insuperable difficulty—that, while every system must be judged by the distance that it carries us in our efforts, one that apparently effects a change for the better in 79 per cent of the cases under its jurisdiction should, in the opinion of the board, merit commendation from those whose responsibility is to make adequate provision for the reformation of the offender. Humanitarian Methods. "The success obtained is, the board believes, in a substantial measure due to the humanitarian methods obtaining —the open-air life, and the constructive work at the various institutions. The board has therefore been pleased to observe during the course of its visits to the different institutions that tlie inmates are fully employed and engaged in, for the most part, both interesting and revenue-producing work.

"The members of the board in their periodical visits to the Borstal institutions have not failed to observe the great pains taken by the officers to make the inmates realise that their future lives are going to be sadly marred if they continue in a course of evil-doing. The regular and intelligent methods of educational instruction given and the no less important physical exercises, in which proficiency is very marked, go hand in hand in the rehabilitation of the characters of those who have taken the first downward step, and it is a pleasure to the board to be able to testify to the steady improvement in the administrative methods of the Prisons Department as evidenced at the institutions under its control."