CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19724, 14 September 1929, Page 21

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS.

TO TBS BOITOB or THB press Sir. —In a recent issue of Thb PkesI asked eonseientiona objectors and pacifists what their attitude is towards the sending of British troops to protect the Jews in Palestine, and if they had been there, would they have protested* Now I am asking another question. Why is it that these good people invariably interpret "preparedness" into a defence of war! Every decent person abhors war, and I am sure Mr Lewin's sensible letter cannot, by any stretch of imagination be interpreted as justifying war as a national pastime. My original question has not yet been answered except by a number of Biblical quotations, therefore I can only gather that these well-intentioned people are avoiding a direct and personal statement.—-Yours, etc., CURIOUS. September 13th, 1929.

PRISONS BOARD. TO TOM BDITOB O* **■ 9VBU Sir.—l have no intention of seriously disagreeing with you in yonr article dealing with the Prisons Board, seeing that with the major portion I heartily agree. But I would like to call attention to one feature of the Board's activities which 6eems to me to require elucidation, because, although as yon well say, the members of this institution are unpaid, we do pay their travelling and hotel expenses, and they possess a tremendous power over the lives of thousands of their fellow beings. In the Board's recent report (Table A) are given the number of the meetings of the Board an 1 the cases considered at each. There were in all fifteen meetings, with a total of 1366 cases, or an average of 91 cases per meeting. In April three meetings were held. ar. 1 at one of these no fewer than 241 Borstal inmates were dealt with, and in one of the November meetings 310 miscellaneous cases were considered, when 71 were recommended for release on probation, 203 were deferred, 21 petitions declined, and the rest disposed of in different ways. Now. Sir, it is known that at the Invercargill meeting only a few days were occupied in the disposal of those 241 eases. Half an hour's attention to each case would have occupied 15 days of eight hours each, and I would suggest that half an hour is not an excess of time to devote to such important business when the future life of the lads is taken into consideration. Rumour has it that the Board releases in batches on the recommendation of the warders and superintendents of our institutions, that the fate of the inmates is deci led before the Board has even interviewed the inmates, and that the "good prisoners" more often than not are recommended for release. It is a well recognised fact that the worst offenders make "good prisoners" because they are old at the game! There is no psychological or psychiatric treatment or teat applied upon which the Board can form any judgment of the essential merits of any case, and if the past records of the individual inmates were fully gone into considerable time would be required, and as far as I can gather, little if any opportunity is taken of the valuable services of recognised social workers who could materially add to the solution of the problems involved in each case. I am, Sir, one of those persons "advocating various forms of penal reform." towards whom the Minister for Justice seems to have little affection; and sometimes, as you are aware. I take the liberty of writing to the papers, which procedure the Minister perhaps likes least of all, but when he advises us to devote our time to "prisoners' aftercare societies" he is attempting to sidetrack the issue, and should first take a glance at what is being accomplished in England, where the Government subsidises after-care work and so encourages those who are willing and able to assist, but who at the present time are not going to undertake work for which the Government should assume responsibility. The Minister does not appear to grasp the simple fact that effective after-care can only follow careful "in care," and that "in care" cannot be done in New Zealand until the Government is prepared to allow ingress to the prisons by qualified social expert workers who can have cess to records and the assistance or highly trained psychiatrists Until such time as the Minister will himself introduce reforms in our penal system 1 fear he will have to put up with troublesome penal -formers^urs^c^^ September 13th, 1929.

TO THZ EWTOB OF TOT »BM«. Sir—lt was pleasing to read your sub-leader in this morning's issue of Tub I'kess commenting on the remarks made by the present Minister itorJustice, during the course ot debate in reference to the functioning of the Prisons Board, and as an "ex-gaol-bird" I beg the opportunity to pay homage to the work of "these people who write to the papers so frequently, advocating various forms of penal reform." But for these people and the papers, quite nossibly there might have been no Prisons Board! I have found to uiv sorrow that an ex-'«gaol-bird's word" does not count for much, and that little credence is placed on any state ments coming from such a source, yet 1 met in prison men who were as truthful as the present Minister for Justice or anv other of his predecessors. Unfortunately, too few are to be found championing the cause of the transgressor, who, on release, after payiug the penalty proscribed by the law, is looked upon by the general public as a pariah, unworthy of sympathetic interest, and the statement made by the Hon. Mr Wilford to the effeet that "during his thirty years as a criminal barrister he had never met a prisoner who admitted his guilt," will not tend to alter this attitude. Had the Minister qualified this statement, and confined his remarks to the "old lags," I could do no other than agree with him, for such was my own experience, and many were the excuses one heard given in explanation of an old offender's return to prison. . Sir, it would be interesting to learn the exact number of accused persons defended■■ by the Hon. Mr Wilford during those thirty years, as the honourable gentleman frankly admitted that all the money he had made in that period came from the pockets of hia unfortunate clif nts. I take it, Sir, that not one of these accused persons pleaded guilty—voluntarily, or as advised by the Hon. Minister. Fourteen years ago, undefended by counsel, I faced a Judge of the Supreme Court and received a sentence from which I am still suffering, although, thanks to the clemency experienced at the hands of the Prisons Board, less than two years of this time was spent in prison, and this in spite of the fact that at the beginning of my term of hard labonr I was not an exemplary prisoner by any means. Time and again I was sentenced to solitary confinement on bread and water in consequence of breaking rules and regulations governing the prison, and I firmly believed that the whole staff had combined in an endeavour to make my life a perfect Hell, but found later on settling down and deciding to make the best of it, as advised dnring an interview with the Chief Warder, manv of the officials were really good chaps, and ever ready with helpful advice. Sir, I must not trespass unduly on your space, though I would be glad of the opportunity to give an impartial and unbiased report on certain reforms so badlv needed under the present system, but my chief concern is to plead for more consideration and sympathetic interest on behalf of ex-pnsonera desirous of making good. My own perI sonal experience has been a bitter one, land on three occasions I have been I forced from" congenial employment on account of rav past. If it were but one that suffered" it would be hard enough, bnt the bitterness occasioned owing to one's family being constantly reminded that the father is an ex-" gaol-bird and "a crook" is almost unbearable. Keforms are badly needed m prison and out, but I must honestly confess that the Hell endured while incarcerated was as nothing when compared with the sufferings I have experienced since release. Surely, Sir,one would expect more broadminded tolerance m such an enlightened age! To those good folk who write to the papers I, as an * n . d » my earnest thanks and sincerely beg that many more mU lend a helping hand in such a worthy cause. I have little hor>e for the future, being down anfoutTbut if this ** b* others I shall reloice.-Tonrs, etc..