Mount Eden Prison riot

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32562, 23 March 1971, Page 12

Mount Eden Prison riot

The Minister of Justice (Mr Riddiford) has declined to comment in detail on the disturbance in Mount Eden Prison until he has studied full reports from his department Notwithstanding the proper caution of Mr Riddiford, public opinion on the episode is bound to have been formed very strongly already, not so much by the riot itself as by the comments of the superintendent of the prison. He is the man on the spot, the man in whose hands the management of the prison lies, and to whom belongs the first responsibility for the welfare and discipline of the prisoners. Mr Hobson is not satisfied with the means with which he has to do his job; and when the whole incident has been calmly reviewed it is unlikely that the department or the Minister of Justice will disagree with him.

The conditions at the prison are not necessarily to be judged by the seriousness of the disorder, still less by the published catalogue of prisoners’ grievances. The demand by prisoners for two clean sheets instead of one each week should not distract attention from the central question of whether the prison system is equipped to do its job. In a brief comment on Sunday Mr Riddiford said it was a pity that the public became interested in prisons only when disturbances took place. It would be a happier situation, he said, if the public adopted a cooperative attitude toward the efforts that were being made to reduce crime and reform the criminal. Mr Riddiford’s view is generally sound. He probably underestimates public interest in efforts to reduce crime; and the layman is not much inclined to grapple with such difficult and controversial problems as the reform of criminals. But it is probably fairly widely agreed that this country has an enlightened Department of Justice, which, in the light of present knowledge, is eager to do its best to restore prisoners to the community with a reasonable chance of going straight

No community has found a satisfactory substitute for imprisonment as a form of punishment and means of self-protection; nevertheless, few would disagree that prisons are imperfect institutions in which to attempt to reform criminals. But, having to work an imperfect system for the want of a substitute in which there would be public confidence, the department still cannot do its best in prisons that contain almost twice as many prisoners as the department considers reasonable. Mr Riddiford does not have to wait for an outburst of public opinion before pressing on with plans for new prison buildings. If his own judgment of public interest is correct, that clear signal of public concern would come too late.