The Press MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1937. Prison Reform in Great Britain

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22196, 13 September 1937, Page 8

The Press MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1937. Prison Reform in Great Britain

The announcement that the British Government proposes to close Pentonville and Dai - moor prisons and is considering the abohtio of penal servitude may mark the beginning oi a fundamental overhaul of the British prison system. It is admitted, even by the severe., critics of the Home Office, that since the Great War prison life in Great Britain has been transformed. Productive occupations have been substituted for such deadening tasks as picking oakum and sorting wool: there are facilities lor physical training and for cultural pursuits; improved libraries have been provided; the broad arrow has disappeared from the prison uniform, and the theory of reformation is gradual y making headway against the theory of deterrence One indication that more liberal methods have not had the effect of “making crime attractive the favourite bugbear of opponents of prison reform-is that the prison population is now little more than half as large as it was in 1914. A more reliable indication is provided by the records, which have been kept since 1930, of the later history of all prisoners convicted for the first time of “ finger- “ printable” offences. Up to the end of 1934. 82.6 per cent, of this class had not returned to prison. It is fair to say. however, that the beneficial changes of the last 25 years have not been based on any clear scheme of reform but have been piecemeal and often reluctant concessions to a public opinion stirred and enlightened by such organisations as the Howar League for Penal Reform. The result is that although the theory of reformation has earned a vague and qualified official acceptance, the British prison system remains what the reforms of the last quarter of the nineteenth century made it—a somewhat unsatisfactory compromise between a system of deterrent punishments and a system of reformative treatment. The nineteenth century believed in reformation; but its faith was mainly in repentance and pious exhortations as instruments of information. Though it is now realised that if the prisons are to rescue men from lives of crime medicine and psychology must come to the aid of religion, proper facilities for treatment on these lines are still lamentably made-

quate and can hardly be made adequate with- • out drastic changes in prison organisation. The ; time seems opportune for such an advance. The , public, as a result of the publication of such , books as Mr W. F. R. Macartney’s “ Walls Have j “ Mouths ” and of the recent riots in Dartmoor, ; have become aware that attractive of privileges available to the modern prisoner do not tell the whole story. Moreover, the new j Home Secretary, Sir Samuel Hoarc, is a descendant of one of t?*e greatest -of Englis prison reformers, Elizabeth Fry, and has a much more detailed knowledge of the subject than most Home Secretaries have had. The closing of Pentonville and Dartmoor, though a promising beginning, is, of course, not so much reform as a further amelioration of prison con- , ditions. Pentonville, the oldest of the large prisons now in use, was built in 1842, its de sign conforming to Jeremy Bentham’s bizarre theory that the first requisite of a prison was that prisoners should be under constant observation. Apart from its antiquity, it is unsuitable because it is situated in an overcrowded part of London and is without grounds. Dartmoor is almost as old as Pentonville and has dreary surroundings and a dreary climate. But the proposal to abolish penal servitude, which was devised as an alternative to transportation, goes to the core of the whole problem of reform. The term itself implies rejection of the id ja of reformation; and the changes that have been, made in the last 25 years have not removed the incompatibility. It must be hoped that the impending developments in Great Britain will be closely watched by the prison authorities in New Zealand. Although in some respects the New Zealand prison system is better than the British, in other and more important respects it is far behind.