RECOVERING THE CRIMINAL

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LI, Issue 8097, 23 September 1922, Page 4

RECOVERING THE CRIMINAL

!' i IS* i.N nils NEARLY FAT Til KIR WAV.

Gu ai inert ares havi been made oi :atc vt.ars in tin. revenue received I,v i lie Li re ms 1 kpai t nienl. Ca ii n n-i.pl.- and credits hare jumped 111 in X 5151 in 1919 to X49,BGG for ,:u financial year 1991-99. These a taai cash Tv;t.i(pl a, however, do ml by anv means o vtr the full luboiq- value of the work ot prireiius dining the past financial, year. A large amount of work is carried ■ ul for which the Prison- Department received no payment whatever but the expenditure el labour in the various channels has the effect citner of developing lands or other State assets, or of saving expenditure that must otherwise be incurred. Under these headings comes the prison labour employed on loads buildings, and .Tluq- public works, for widen la.-I yea r there was a, value of X9l, 190. To this has to be added tho value of prison labour employed in pii.v.m works, and industries, such as boot making, tailoring, gardening, lanning and domestic employment, which bret, year totalled X 94, 69b. ’flu total value; of prison labour for the financial year was therefore X95.G14, against tho gre.sa expenditure of XJ99,4 11. The above figures are contained iu tlu annual report of Ihe Prisons Department, piesentod to- tho House of lUpreseutativos recently. Comparing' pa A and present, system:-, the it jx it comments; "While the foreg.dng figures demonstrate, clearly the material gain to the coin it ay by the adoption of the policy followed in recent years, the improved moral effect mi the individual prisoner, compared with that under i he fcitm..- system, still followed iu some (f rhe older countries, is incalculable. When ou r prisons, were simply place:-, of safe eustodv, where there was little or no work of an bit I re stdug, use'l’nl, or remunerative chac.a-ter, there, was little hope, for anything .but, the, deterioration of the prisoner, mentally, morally, and sometime;-! physically. Upon his discharge the city dweller inevitably retur/ud to his former environment in the city, with a diminished capacity lor competition with his fed lows iu the outside world, and an increased tendency towards crime. Under present conditions every man whoso oilcnce, or whose general conduct, warrant it, is either drafted to- one; of our country institutions o r is suitably employed at useful and remunerative work of some kind, d he result is shown by the fact that even some of tho many-times convicted prisoners remain in the occupations' upon which they have

of remain n M also provided as a imams to a cic>ired cud llu- provenlo.n (!' luenoaJ, <>Vud moral deterioration.”