USE OF PRISON LABOUR

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27733, 10 August 1955, Page 14

USE OF PRISON LABOUR

PROFITABLE YIELD REPORTED

RELATION TO RISK OF ESCAPES

(Aew Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 9. Prison labour is saving New Zealand many thousands of pounds a year, according to the Justice Department’s annual report, tabled in the House of Representatives today. Such labour was being widely used to cultivate land and maintain farms, the renort said.

The gross revenue from the department’s farms last year was £llB 690. and from other industries £75.006, said the report. The gross revenue of £193,696 averaged about £163 an inmate, and was higher than in the previous year.

New Zealand’s prison system was largely based on the clearance and development of land, said the report, and this was a factor which inevitably contributed to the possibility of escapes.

“It is practically impossible to prevent escapes from prison,” the report said. Some escapes looked so simple that the public must wonder why the prison authorities had been so careless. Public opinion would not permit the administration to keep prisoners permanently in cells and in irons, “but in default of this, escapes must be expected occasionally.” Those prisoners considered the more serious social dangers were held in Mount Eden prison, and others were held under conditions of medium security, said the report. Nearly a quarter of all prisoners, however, worked in conditions which “to all intents and purposes permit them to escape if they make no more than a reasonably determined effort.” If this was to be stopped it would be necessary to build more maximum security institutions such as Mount Eden, to forgo farming activities, and, incidentally, to place the burden of feeding 1200 persons on the taxpayer, as no prison industry was as profitable as farming, said the report.

Though there had been no general increase in the number of escapes during the year, particularly when they were related to the average daily prison population, the administration was not complacent on the subject of escapes, it said.

“Each incident calls for inquiry and, if necessary, action,” he report added. “Every reasonable precaution is taken, and constant thought is given to the problem of security. Nevertheless, no prisons administration can guarantee that there , will not be occasional escapes.”