Periodic detention found successful

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32587, 22 April 1971, Page 12

Periodic detention found successful

People who offended against the community should be required to make atonement, and this was where periodic detention had its greatest value, said Mr W. J. Croft, warden at the adult periodic detention centre.

Mr Croft, who was speaking at a luncheon held by i the Multiple Sclerosis Society, said that periodic■ detention filled in the gap; between imposing a fine on : an offender and sentencing i him to gaol, and that in many ■ cases periodic detention was a much more appropriate punishment. i “One of the many advant-I ages of periodic detention is ' that a married man who has : been convicted for an offence ; is not removed from his ■ family, work' or society; con-' sequently he does not suffer a loss of prestige by being 1 sent to prison,” said Mr > Croft Periodic detention had been ' initiated in New Zealand about seven years ago, and j had spread from here to Australia, the south of England, and Delaware in the United 1 States of America, he said. 1 It provided a legal judicial < punishment available to magistrates that was not as ( drastic as a prison sentence, and was of particular benefit ■ to first offenders, Mr Croft < said. I “The value of the periodic 1 detention system to the community can be gauged by the number of men who have not reoffended,” he said. < “Out of 100 men, about 80 i

■ serve their sentence quietly and do not commit any more : offences; 10 would have to come back to the centre for a second time before they reformed; and only about another 10 would end up in prison.” Mr Croft said that the adult detention centre was a nonresidential system; this meant that those sentenced were not removed from their families. The youth detention centre, for those aged under 21, was a week-end residential system. “Those who attend the centre have to be certified medically fit for hard labour, which consists of working under supervision for the community, usually for charitable organisations and the elderly,” he said. “And all this work, which can be between 13 and 70 hours a week, must be done on top of ordinary work.” The cost to the community of keeping one man in periodic detention was about one-thirtieth of the cost of keeping him in prison, said Mr Croft “The scheme has worked extremely well since its inception in New Zealand,” said Mr Croft.