Support For Detention Centre Urged

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30804, 16 July 1965, Page 2

Support For Detention Centre Urged

The National Council of Women was asked last evening to give its support to the establishment of a periodic detention centre in Bristol street.

• “I can think of no scheme that deserves our blessing more,” said the president of the Christchurch branch (Mrs A. M. Ashley).

Most of the criticism expressed against the project had been in ignorance, she said. The important aspect was that the centre would be giving boys an opportunity to become good citizens by hard but fair discipline.

The boys who would go there were offenders, but they had not been in gaol, she said. They needed punishment. Most of them were probably easily led boys with a “chip on their shoulders” and wanting to hit out against authority.

•“They have to be taught that they just can’t do these things," she said. "They will be made to realise that they are part of society and, like all citizens, must obey society’s laws or be taken out of society.”

The centre would give the boys an opportunity to make a constructive effort to adjust their standards of behaviour and to learn that just as others were concerned for them, so they must learn concern for others.

“They will have to work hard and obey the rules implicity,” she said. "They will go to the centre every Friday night, work Saturday and Sunday and return to their homes on Sunday night. They will be required to report every Wednesday evening. The centre does not want to break into the boys’ work cycle.” The house bought in St. Albans would require much repair work, which would be done by the youths. There had been criticism that there was not enough ground at the property to keep the boys busy. But they would be required to do gardening for the aged and handicapped as well as for some institutions. "There will not be any lack of opportunity for finding garden work,” she said. The Auckland periodic detention centre was probably

unique and was considered one of the most remarkable developments in the field of crime and punishment in the last 50 years, she said. “The Christchurch committee formed to establish the centre has been looking for a house for the last year. Only one other house was suitable, but it was snapped up before the committee could buy it,” she said. In Auckland, nearly 100 boys so far had been sentenced to periodic detention. In the two years the centre had been operating there had not been : ne instance of any

boy becoming involved with neighbours. Criticism heard against the Christchurch centre, in this and other aspects, had been made largely in ignorance, she said. The boys would not onlyhave to work, but would also have discussion groups in which they would be able to speak freely and privately. In such groups, some of the boys in the Auckland centre had tried to analyse themselves as to where they had gone wrong and had tried to ascertain how others could learn from their mistakes. “Some boys, of course, give the impression that they do not want to reform,” she said. The Christchurch committee was being most careful in the selection of a warden, as so much depended on this officer. “I am sure everyone here will say with me: ‘May the periodic detention centre here be successful in the way the committee wants it to be.’’ And that is to make it possible for these lads to enter society again as good citizens,” Mrs Ashley told the meeting. The following sub-commit-tees were appointed last evening at a meeting of the Christchurch branch of the National Council of Women: education, Mesdames D. G. McFadden (convener), G. Martin, W. A. Pyatt, R. C. Overton; television, Mesdames L. O. Tyrrell (convener), J. Russell, A. M. Vile, P. Brown; bousing, Mesdames A. M. Ashley (convener), P. Tipping, E. Giddens, Miss B. Webb; justice, Mesdames G. M. Samson (convener), G. Suggate, L. Cattell, E. Hale; social welfare, Miss M. E. Saunders (convener), Mesdames A. Young, D. J. Wales, Dr. M. Smith; hospitality, Mesdames P. Tipping (convener), R. S. Royds, W. W. Averill, Dr. M. Smith. Mrs W. K, Ogden was appointed assistant-secretary to the branch.