Preventive Detention May Go

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31017, 24 March 1966, Page 3

Preventive Detention May Go

(N.Z. Press Association) INVERCARGILL, March 23

During the last few years the emphasis in New Zealand had been on the young offender. The time had arrived for a reappraisal of the handling of the adult offender, the Minister of Justice (Mr Hanan) said in Invercargill today.

“I would like to see legislation relating to periodic detention, which has been such a valuable sanction in the case of the young offender, passed to extend the scheme in a modified form to adults. “It seems to me that a system of week-end imprisonment for certain adult offenders might be much more effective than a term of imprisonment. 1 have in mind such offenders as the drunken driver, the petty thief and possibly debtors,” he said. Often imprisonment meant loss of job and a consequent economic crisis within the home. It would be preferable to leave the offender at home and in his job during the week and to have him work off his sentence during weekends and holidays. A second development related to the sentence of preventive detention. “I have felt for some time that this sentence has not been serving fully the purpose for which it was originally intended,” he said. Because of the low minimum of three years there had been an understandable tendency to impose preventive detention on many offenders who were inadequate citizens rather than professional criminals.

They were a nuisance to the community but they were not dangerous and had neither the inclination nor the wit to make a living out of crime. “1 think preventive detention as at present constituted imposes a penalty out of relation to the type of crime which they normally commit,” he said. For the more serious offenders who now attracted sentences of preventive detention the law already provided adequate finite sentences and it would be better if they were dealt with in that way. “I would certainly retain preventive detention for the

most serious type of sexual offender and, indeed, 1 think the present minimum period of three years for this type of offender is too low and I am thinking in terms of a fiveyear minimum,” he said. Such measures, along with an extension of classification and follow-up and an extension of the release to work scheme, would go some way towards creating a more positive approach to the problem of the adult offender. “It disturbs me that you are often asked to carry out your job with inadequate tools, particularly inadequate buildings and shortage of staff,” said Mr Hanan. It was vital that the prison’s service be recognised as an honourable and worthwhile vocation, Mr Hanan said.

“Too many citizens still remain ignorant of what the work entails and what is expected of officers,” he said.

He would do his best to improve the “image" but must have the help of staff. It was the spirit of the prisons service itself which really made the most impact “If the service takes pride in

itself and its functions, then my task will be made easier. Pride must spring from within the ranks and it was the commanders in the field who must foster and maintain it.” he said.

Salaries and physical working conditions were important but equally important were the satisfaction and spiritual support a man got from knowing he was doing a worthwhile job and had an important place in the team.

“As Minister I have insisted and will continue to insist upon a policy which places prime importance upon the rank and file prison officers," Mr Hanan said.

Although good progress had been made in recent year s the service could not afford to stagnate. “We have no established answers to the problem of crime and punishment but we have embarked on a policy of experimentation in an endea-

vour to find some of these answers,” he said.

There had been some progress in the last five years to alleviate the accommodation shortage. Work had been done at Waikeria. Rangipo, Witako, Waipiata. and Mount Eden. Construction of a maximum security prison at Paremoremo had begun and plans were well advanced for a new women’s prison at Christchurch