Warder critical of today’s inmates

Press, 7 December 1987, Page 7

Warder critical of today’s inmates

PA Wellington The “class” of prisoners has changed for the worse, says a retiring prison officer Peter Edwards, speaking from 37 years experience. “Prisoners in the old days were a better class of person than they are now, they were hard men but good jokers ... you never had the problems you do now. “Today there’s more drugs, society has changed.” Mr Edwards, who re-

tires as chief farming instructor at Wi Tako Prison this month, is New Zealand’s longest serving prison officer. > He said he had met some memorable characters, including three murderers who were hanged. “People say bring back hanging ... but who’s going to do the hanging, I wouldn’t ...” He recalls one prisoner who wanted to return “inside” two days after his release to help groom pigs for an agricultural show.

Mr Edwards has responsibility for three prison farms in the Wellington area and has entered Justice Department pigs in local A. and P. shows. “At one time we had the best pigs in the country and the inmates used to get a real kick out of the shows.” Prisons today, Mr Edwards said, were more humane but were not “soft” “Locking a person away is never soft, but there’s a lot more rehabilitation work now.”