Youth Prison Suggested For Serious Offenders

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29742, 8 February 1962, Page 18

Youth Prison Suggested For Serious Offenders

TM PressA Special Service

HAMILTON, Feb, «, There should be a youth prison for offenders under 21 who are not suitable for Borstal training, said Mr R. S. Pearson, superintendent-in-in-chief of the Waikena Prison Centre, in an address to Hamilton Rotarians. The courts were committed by the Criminal Justice Act to send any person under 21 who was convicted of a serious crime to Boreal. Some youths, because of

the nature of their crime, because they were social defectives, because they had a long criminal record or because they had been in Borstal before, were not suitable for training. They formed a hard core of recalcitrants and tended to hold back those who really wanted to try. There was nothing wrong with the Borstal system but' some offenders were just not suitable material. The aim of Borstal training was not, as many persons seemed to think, merely to teach boys a trade but more to teach Uiem correct social attitudes. Waikeria also had a detention centre in which young offenders served short, sharp sentences of two to three months’ corrective training. Although the emphasis was on hard work and discipline, the inmates were also given lectures on social etJucs and other topics.