DETENTION SCHEME MAY BE USED MORE

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31360, 4 May 1967, Page 3

DETENTION SCHEME MAY BE USED MORE

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, May 3.

Community groups were now actively co-operating with the Justice Department in the problem of dealing with the offender. This was a significant step forward in the penal policy and one likely to pay handsome dividends, said the Minister of Justice (Mr Hanan) today.

In an address to the Wellington Justices of the Peace Association outlining the schemes for young persons’ and adult periodic detention, and a scheme for probation with community work, Mr Hanan said that the three’ schemes had the common features of dealing with the offender while he was still in the community.

The concept of periodic detenf might best be applied on a wider basis throughout the country by the general in-

troduction of the sentence of working i the community as a condition of probation, said Mr Hanan. This form of sentence had already been applied by a number of magistrates over the last three years and had been well received by the local communities. It had sometimes been referreu to as creative restitution, said Mr Hanan. Useful Pattern “A useful pattern for dealing with these offenders in this manner has been established at Whangarei. There the district probation officer has a small advisory committee, representative of social services and social work groups, local bodies and labour unions. “The functions of this committee are to approve work projects on which offenders may be engaged, to ensure local interest and support, and to advise the administration of any matter affecting the scheme in the area,” said Mr Hanan. Arrangements were then made for the offender to be included in a work project of a public nature or for the benefit of the less fortunate, undertaken by one of the social groups. “He is therefore brought in touch with people with the right motives and his supervision is unobtrusive and almost incidental.” Compensation

The Crown was prepared to accept responsibility for compensation for an accidental injury to the probationer in the course of the work, said Mr Hanan.

“This form of sentence has just recently been brought to the attention of all magistrates in districts where the establishment of a work centre is not justified.” He wished' to emphasise that offences attracting the penalty of periodic detention must be of such gravity as would warrant imprisonment, said Mr Hanan. “Not Substitute” Adult periodic detention was not a substitute for a fine where this would be the usual penalty—it was or should be a substtiute for imprisonment, he said. The drunken driver, the assaulter, and the person who failed to pay a fine were just three categories of offenders who normally attracted short s itences or imprisonment, but for whom imprisonment was a clumsy and unsatisfactory form of penalty. A sentence involving loss of liberty only at week-ends over a much longer time seemed likely to provide an alternative and more effective sanction against this type of offender, said Mr Hanan.