Rioting prisoners

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32566, 27 March 1971, Page 18

Rioting prisoners

Sir, —Though I have not yet been in prison I do, indeed, know the meaning of claustrophobia, but it had never occurred to me that a radio could alleviate the acute distress it causes. Some people in prison deserve sympathy, but fewer crimes would mean less crowding and, though a decent standard of living is desirable, I still maintain that the plea for two clean sheets a week is absurd affectation. So do all the people who have spoken to me about the sentiments expressed in my letter, written without my hearing Tim Shadbolt’s remarks in “Checkpoint.”— Yours, etc., MARGARET HILSON. March 24, 1971.

Sir, —“Disillusioned Nationalist” and many others should study economics, especially the rule that you can only take out of the kitty what has already been put in. Everyone wants more and more from the Government in various ways, but there is a terrible row if taxes or other charges are increased. Conditions at prisons are directly due to wage increases which have added to all costs and made it impossible for the Government to take up too many great building programmes. The other cause is that people have too much pay, and too little work to make them healthily tired, so they spend their energy

getting into mischief for which they are likely to be landed in gaol—hence the overcrowding. With higher pay and better working conditions, there is more crime than ever before.—Yours, etc., HOUSEWIFE. March 26, 1971. Sir,—Ethics is a branch of politics. That is to say, it is the duty of the Statesmen to create for the citizen the best possible opportunity of living the good life. It will be seen that the effect of this injunction is not to degrade morality but to moralise politics. The modern view that “you cannot make men better by act of Parliament” would have been repudiated by Aristotle as certainly as by Plato, and indeed by ancient philosophers in general. May I add that if these social outcasts were occupied and kept busy, mind and body, in interesting, worth-while work their lives might have a brighter and healthier outlook. The story of the outcast kitten and the kind and thoughtful little Maori child is surely a lesson to us all.—Yours, etc., ZEUS. March 25, 1971.