Criminal Justice Bill

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31781, 11 September 1968, Page 16

Criminal Justice Bill

Sir, —The proposed Criminal Justice Amendment Bill which provides for holding a person in custody without trial and without right of appeal, and for treating him psychiatrically against his ■wishes, suggests that those responsible for the bill have studied the methods employed by Hitler’s Gestapo, or even those employed in the dark ages in the Tower of London. As one who has personal knowledge of the effects of shock treatment I regard this legislation as dangerous in the extreme. The Government evidently wants power to use L.S.D. (the truth drug) indiscriminately, as it is used in America. The bill should be renamed the Criminal Injustice Bill. To introduce such legislation in this Year of Human Rights is pure hypocrisy on the part of the Government. —Yours, etc., PERCY L. McMILLAN. Saltwater Creek. August 30, 1968.

[The Minister of Justice (Mr Hanan) replies: “The Criminal Justice Amendment

Bill is too lengthy a document to summarise in a brief comment, but a study of its provisions and a consideration of the extent to which the Courts’ powers under them are narrower than those which the Courts now have (and have had for 11 years without criticism from any person, group, or organisation) would clearly show the lack of justification for any accusation of Gestapo methods, in particular, there is no provision for a person held in mental hospital pending his trial to be psychiatrically treated against his wishes, except in cases where his detention arises from doubts as to his fitness to stand trial or as to his sanity at the time of the alleged offence, and then only to the extent that the treatment is necessary to prevent the deterioration of the person’s mental health."]