The Press. THURSDAY, MAY 24, 1906.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12501, 24 May 1906, Page 6

The Press. THURSDAY, MAY 24, 1906.

PRISONERS' TREE PLANTING CAMPS. We do not think that the report of the New Scuth Wales Comptroller of Prison-, condemning the sybcem of treeplanting by prison gangs in New Zealand, is to bo brushed away so lightly as tho authorities in Wellington seem to imagine. It is quite true, as the Hon. Mr McGowan points out, that the life at the camps is a very healthy one and tho prisoners enjoy it. It is also far more satisfactory from every point of view that the prisoners should be engaged in reproductive work from which tho country will reap a benefit than that they should be kept in idleness or restricted to'routine tasks of no value either to themselves or to anyone else. So far tho system has its advantages, and if it were carried out as originally proposed—that is, restricted to first offenders and good conduct prisoners convicted of comparatively mild offences—wo should havo no hesitation in commending it. It is a well-known fact, however, that prisoners aro brought from all parts of tho colony, and th© old and hardened criminals aro associated with offenders undergoing their first experience of gaol. It is impossible to doubt that such association is extremely bad in its effects. In point of fact wo have been assured by an ex-prisoner, whose word w© have no hesitation in accepting, that the camps are really schools of crime, that th© "older" hands further corrupt tho younger men, and that mono than on© instance has occurred of prisonens plotting together robberies to bo committed after their release. It is easy to imagine the opportunities offered for abuses of this kind. If, for example, a jeweller's assistant, in trouble for robbing the till, is put to work at treeplanting in company with an experienced burglar it is very easy to see that the former could furnish the burglar with information about his master's shop and habits likely to be very useful to the latter on his release, and that the two might plan a robbery and arrange to share tho plunder without tho prison authorities being any the wiser. When Parliament meets w© think a committee should be set up to enquire into tho system. It would probably then be found that tho plan, although it has many good points in theory, requires to be very carefully carried out in practice if it is to do good and not harm.