ON PROBATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 158, 5 July 1940, Page 9

ON PROBATION.

REPORT FOR PAST YEAR. WORK REASONABLY SUCCESSFUL. (By Tolegrnph -rnrlinmenrary .Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. ■Persons placed on probation during the year ended December 31 last responded reasonably satisfactorily, according to the report of the chief probation officer, Mr. B. 7,. Dallard. which was tabled in the House of 'Representatives yesterday afternoon by the Minister of Justice, Mr. Mason. Of the total dealt with, the number of probationers who relapsed was 11 per cent.

The total number of persons dealt with by probation, and deferred sentence subject to supervision, was 1117, an increase of 193 on the number for the previous year. The preponderance of those dealt with were young persons. Of a total of 942 granted probation, 556 were under the age of 25, and 30 per cent under the age of 20. The report suggests that this trend connotes a moral deterioration or that there is something lacking in the ethical training of young people. Approximately 50 per cent of the offences were for theft.

Surprise was expressed by the chief probation officer that there had been an increase in the number of cases admitted to probation wliere the olTences had been of a grave sexual nature, his view being that the more generous impulses of the law were not appropriate to offences of a grave, brutal or deliberate character.

Of the 288 persons released on probation during the year after serving a term of imprisonment, one was recommitted to prison for breach of the conditions of his license, and 22, including 14 habitual criminals, had their licenses cancelled for further offences. This small percentage of failures, the report states, must be regarded as satisfactory.

The policy of gradually replacing police constables acting as probation officers by civilian probation officers in the larger secondary towns was continued, to leave the constables freer to attend to their many other duties.

"The probatron work is steadily growing and its technique improving," Mr. Dallard's report adds. "I think from the results achieved it can be fairly claimed that the work during the year has been reasonably successful."