PRISON STAFFS’ WAGES

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27277, 18 February 1954, Page 2

PRISON STAFFS’ WAGES

INCREASES SOUGHT ADVOCATE COMMENTS ON NATURE OF DUTIES (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, February 17. “We assert that the present salary scales do not properly recognise the value of the work performed by prison staffs,” said Mr J. Turnbull, advocate for the Public Service Association, when he presented a claim for higher pay for prison staffs, before the Government Service Tribunal today.

The claim is being heard by Judge Stilwell.

Mr Turnbull said the pay was inadequate to attract the desired number of men and women of the required calibre. He quoted as follows from the 1953 Official Year Book: “Offenders are sent to prison as a punishment, but not to be punished in prison. The principal task of the prisons administration is to attempt reformation in every case offering any hope of success.” The present wage scales, Mr Turnbull said, were based almost entirely on the custodial Responsibilities of prison staffs. There was little or no allowance made for the more exacting reformatory responsibilities, which were officially declared to be the “principal task.” Only exceptional prison officers did not realise that their principal task was to attempt reformation.

“The officer must be patient to the point of being long-suffering,” said Mr Turnbull. “He cannot take refuge in the old attitude of utter aloofness, speaking only to give orders, and yet he cannot just be ‘one of the boys.' . . . For the time, being, he is the representative of society, and the prisoners’ attitude to society on their release will in no small measure be conditioned by the attitude they have developed to its representatives in prison.”

Mr Turnbull then dealt with the variety and scope of the work done in prisons, for much of which, he said, ‘-special instructors were needed.

The claim is for £605 a year, as against a present £554 for prison offi-1 cers, with pay rising to £692 a year,! as against a present maximum of £620. Similar increases are sought for senior prison officers, deputy principal officers, principal officers, chief officers, deputy superintendents, and suoerintendents in four grades to a maximum salary of £1262. Increases are alsc sought for instructors.

Women officers’ wages are also dealt with in the claim.