CRIME REVIEW

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 182, 3 August 1944, Page 2

CRIME REVIEW

MORE DISHONESTY FALL IN MORAL STANDARDS (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. "The most arresting feature is the steadily mounting total of offences against property," stated the Controller General of Prisons, Mr. B. L. Dallard, in his annual report presented to the House of Representatives yesterday. "When it is borne in mind that the facilities for honest employment were abundant and that wages were good it is only possible to ascribe the increase in the number of offences of a predatory nature to a growing declension in moral standards. The simple copybook dictum —honesty is the best policy—would seem almost to be an outmoded philosophy, not compatible with the acquisitive astuteness of those who comprise this group! many of whom strive to rationalise their predacious acts by self-deluding sophistries that the criminal law is simply an instrument designed to buttress the rights of property. "Such anarchistic casuistry strikes at the very foundation of the rule of law and would undermine the basis of the mutual relations upon which society exists," he continued. "Our criminal law is certainly designed to buttress the rights of man, but it is founded on the principle that the restraint of liberty is justified only in so far as it is necessary to maintain liberty." " Disquieting ** Attention was drawn in the report to the number of persons received into prisons and Borstal institutions undey the age of 20, the position in this respect being described as disquieting, as by far the great majority of the 354 in this group were committed in 1943. Their swelling ranks pointed to a need for greater emphasis on preventive measures before incarceration rather than on corrective measures afterwards. With few exceptions, said the Controller General, the conduct of prisoners had been good, the refractory ones being confined mainly to military defaulters. A few of them seemed unable to reconcile their illusory philosophies with reality, and in consequence, despite their sincerity in some ■ instances, were a great nuisance potential as a focus of dissension and mischief. A number who claimed to base their objection to military service on conscientious grounds had no scruples in the matter of deception and trickery designed to circumvent prison regulations, some not even hesitating to have recourse to theft of produce and trafficking. In 1943, states the report, the number of persons received into penal establishments in New Zealand totalled 3656, representing a decrease of 563 on the total received in the previous year. There were approximately 600 fewer males committed to prison last year than in 1942. The number of women committed in 1943 i was 293, compared with 263 in 1942. ] an increase of 30. .The report stated that the increased number of women prisoners was mainly due to the greater incidence of prostitution associated with the influx to the cities of armed personnel and to the efforts of the authorities to control the spread of venereal disease. There had been a noticeable falling off in the number of committals since the foregoing statistics were compiled.