BEHIND THE BARS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 256, 29 October 1942, Page 4

BEHIND THE BARS

A PARSON LOOKS AT PRISON SUGGESTED REFORMS

"In actual fact, our prison system .is hopelessly archaic." In this sentence the Rev. George Moreton, for i over a dozen years chaplain at Mt. j Eden prison, stuns up his friendly, | if at times sharp, criticism of the penal system as it exists in New Zealand to-day. *

| Penology has made great progress | along the road of reform abroad durJ ing the last few decades, and to dc-ciare that our system is still in the ■ dark ages, is a challenge which. when supported bv argument and ! evidence, frontally attacks our efforts jto cure while punishing crime. A temperate analysis of existing con- | ditions, made with the authoritv of ! daily association, is worthv of* the j careful examination not only of those ! to whom the guardianship of the , .awbreaker is entrusted, but also to all who are in any wav interested ! in the well-being of others less for- | tunate than themselves. Such an analysis is made by Mr. Moreton in liis book "A Parson in Prison" | <W hitcombe and Tombs). In this hook, biographical and ! polemical, the author discusses ihc ; causes of present failure, and points i <he road to something better. Even

j in wartime there is need for such a reminder. for a call to ' do 1 more than we are cloin;: to-I (iny for the possible refomia-; j turn less for the certain retribution «»i. the lawbreaker. Crime doors not pay. Mr. Moreton presses home that point, but with no less insistency jhe asks authority to look behind j the crimes to its causes, to remove them \\ hei'e pos'sible. and meantime so to educate the lawbreaker that he w:JI turn from his evil v/ays. The prison system in this countrv Mr. Moreton says, is larptclv the P.nplish system of GO vears' apo attempts to modernise it having mW with no conspicuous success. Since it is only in this centurv that, the j tilost. notable reforms in the Ensrlish . have taken place, the state-

I mcnt that we stand where Knglanci l'<!oud go years ago cannot be light Iv waved a-ide. ' " OfTicei s 01 to-day, he says, are for the mo*t part without specific training for the work in hand, nor is the pay sufficiently high to attract the right type of personnel. In Eiv'- | land a personality test, a stiff medical examination and an education test are insisted unon and onlv about one fifth of the applicant* reach the standard demanded. Mr. Moreton suggests that each prison staff here shouid have a psvt hiafiist, that highlv trained otficers be employed, and that prisoneVs be drafted in'o the group best suited to the personality of each. He aNo suggests the abolition of servile I labour, the institution of technical j and cultural classes, and the introduction of sport to replace the ward ! system of exercise. He especiallv condemns solitary conimement and the use of the dummy, a cell in which breakers of prison law are confined. He also roundiy condemns die architectural horrors of Mt Fden prison and suggests the erection of oundingp which conform to the requirements of a scientific age. He does not ask for maudlin senfimentality in the treatment of the lawnreaker. but he does suggest that the Government appoint a"commission to investigate the whole sv.-tem, as was done in England in' ISOl' i he successes of methods practised elsewhere could be examined bv such a commission, and those which are reformative and not merely retributive adapted to our needs here.