'CRIME & PUNISHMENT

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2618, 13 November 1915, Page 13

'CRIME & PUNISHMENT

SOME REFLECTIONS ON N-Z. AND BRITISH ASPECTS*

(By; Commissioner D. O. Lamb, of tho Salvation Army.)

No. 11. Society has always been more concerned about tho deterrent effects of punishment of the criminal than solicitous about his reformation. "You aro sentenced to bo hanged not because you stole tho horse, out in order to prevent others from stealing horses," said a one-time famous English Judge in pronouncing sentence on a prisoner. It was long before civilisation recognised that there could be a reasonable towards crime and criminals, and it is doubtful despite the advance of humanitarian principles whether the general feeling is yet moro than lukewarm on the subject. Even to-day socioty harbours her lust for revenge. In our penal code there linger tho relics of barbarism—the eye for an eye, and a limb for a. limb spirit of the old dispensation rather than the inclination to follow the humanising tendency of the now. And oven in some of our charitable. organisations the idea that punishment is the heaven-ordained accessory- of righteousness is so deeply ingrained as to counteract much of the good they could do W6re they more enlightened. For examplo, many of the friends of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children are of opinion that this # body would he rendering better service to the com-

munity if it spent more of tho time, energy, and money it now devotes to 'bringing tlie alleged authors of oruelty to justice, in doing something to lighten the burden of tlioso mothers whose

neglect ha 3 been more the outcome of circumstances than pcrverseness. The mother with six or eight children under fourteen years of age to house, feed, and clothe on tho minimum wage, whatever her faults, is hardly tho subject for imprisonment. To lift her out of her immediate surroundings and give her on educative holiday for a week or two in company with her youngest child, while some practical mothgrly soul took charge of the house and the other members of the family would probably mean tho redemption of the woman and the salvation of' tho homo, and would certainly be more to tlio point of practical religion—or practical politics—than ft prosecution. and imprisonment for neglect. This by way of digression. ' It required a plague to move society in tho, first steps of prison reform. In Britain gaol fever failed to discriminate between the Judge and the condemned, and claimed thousands of victims outside the prison walls, compelling constituted authority in selt'-tiel'ciice to remodel t'he architecture and the sanitation of tlio prison houso, although ■ the lot of the gaol-bird continued to be a matten- of supreme 'indifference for > many a long day Unspeakable cruelties were systematically practised ' within the Bridewells all over the land. In 1850, howover, tie astounding revelation regarding prison life contained in Charles Reade's "Never Too Late to Mend"

sent a shudder through tho national consciousness, and gavo birth to an improved system for tho treatuient of criminals and the regulation of prisons. Now, happily, we have got away from the crudest of the horrors 'which wo were wont to inflict on our more

wretched brethren in tho' name of justice. The "hulks" hnvo boon put out of commission; transportation to the plantations no longer obtains; tlio tread-wheel has been Bc.rapped, but there remain torments sufficient to con. vince the transgressor that his ways aro not the paths of pleasantness. Perhaps one of tho most advanced examples of the new spirit in prison administration is to be seen in Guelph Farm Prison in Ontario, where; locks, bolts, and bars, and forbidding walls have little share in a method miich recognises that, after all, tlie convict Is a human entity, with' a man's feelings as well as his failings, and in many respects treats him as an ordinary citizen. This prison . has a Army officer in attendance doing chaplain's duty. \'Tlie principle laid down by the Salvation Army is that the man who

turns criminal, whether ho be a common drunkard or brutal murderer, is a man whose' soul has becomo warped and distorted. Its remedies arc for

tio soul of tho man. It has, discovered that the age of miracles is not past; that the hc-aling touch of tho Creator to the soul diseased is as potent to-day in Great Britain or New Zealand as it was 2000 years ago on the shores of the Lake_ of Galilee." 1 In these words a prominent member of tho Salvation

Army summed up tho elements of his social science recently, and who can assert that this faith has not been justified by results. The founder of tho Salvation Army had a thorough understanding of the oriminal side of the social problem, and his practical contributions to reforma-

tivo science, if tho term may be used, have not been improved upon. Although it might be claimed that he was the greatest exponent of applied Christianity tho world has ever seen, he was not given to_ sentimentalism. He did not believa in 'namby-pamby . methods, and had a rough side for loafops and malingerers of evory description. But he had great insight' into human nature, and was essentially, compassionate. The success of his method of dealing with criminals and ne'er-do-wells was that he sought to' introduce hope for! tho future into tho soul of the forlorn wretch who camo under his inllufcnco, and he.succeeded beyond measure. Despair perhaps has more to do with the establishing of a man in crime than, any other cause/ inherited or acquired, the difficulties in the way of returning to _ respectability after the first lapse diriving !him further into the morass, until frequent imprisonment and association with the vile render him the confirmed enemy of his species. Any method or system which, while punishing justly, will allow the culprit to .retain tho feeling that if he r.uns straight "all is not yet lost," and enables !liim "when he hus "tholed his assize," as the Scotch Say, to look to tho future with hope, will deserve well of humanity.

It must be apparent to many, however, that tho methods of punishment hitherto employed havo nad little or 110 effect in restraining the punished from repeating thoir offences.- Men keep on going to prison, coming out, and being sent back again, their sentences increasing as tho sum of their misdeeds multiplies. ■ And when the lecords of their lives come to bo made it is found that each is ono long term of imprisonment by occasional vacations in which tho gaol-bird found brief recreation in preying on his fellows. Tho universal verdict seems tb bo once a criminal always a criminal. Surely this is a confession that tho old systems havo failed completely. Humanity demands other methods. A moans must he devised for reaching i3io oloniont of goodness which is not entirely absent even in the hardest of hard cases. It is evident that this is not to bo arrived at through tho ordinary official systems. Tho average individual employed in our penal establishments to control or to attend to the convicts by virtue of tho system of which ho is a part is useless as a reformative agent. No matter in what direction his sympathies lie, tho pivmptings of his finer feelings always come to grief against the cast-iron rules of prison-made discipline. Consequently 1 lie can have little intorost in hi a oliarces.

beyond preventing them from becoming unmanageable, feeding them punctually, watching that they obey all the regulations, and reporting them for punishment when thoy commit a fault.

The task of reformation should really bo the work of tlie religious organisa-i tion; for moral reformation cannot bo achieved by material repression of all the finer instincts. Considering tho palpable failure of State action towards tins end, Government would be well advised if they delegated the work mora and more to tried and trusted agencies experienced in rescue work amongst the debris of human nature. Surely if it has proved its capacity in the field of 6ooial regeneration, such an organisation, whether it be Roman Catholic or Protestant, is infinitely more qualified for the job than any combination of officials controlled in every act by an admittedly imperfect system, Convmce the conviot that the mail responsible for his keeping holds hie office from altruistic motives—that he is not a functionary interested in his work solely for tie biro it will bring him— and you at once find a breach in his armour of callousness His mental attitude towards his debased condition becomes revolutionised. The sullen defiance of liis soul breaks down. He becomes more susceptible to sympathetic treatment, ana under intelligent oversight the change that takes place in his character is wonderful. In work of this nature the _ hallowing influence of a good woman is inestimable. 1 _Is the idea of the complete eliminac fnon of prisons as part of the New Zealand social system too Utopian in its aspiration? What will the next generation, potentially a peat deal more enlightened than then 1 predecessors, think of the hideous prison buildings Itr t. 38 a k' o ' on their fair heritage? With to many ancient ideas and shibboleths going by the board under presBUr ® expediency at this crisis in the world s history, tho time is opportune for innovation. In suggesting a %reaklng away from the traditional method of with ' the criminal, I need not apologise for stating that my mind is naturally. influenced by thoughts of the great work done by the Salvation Army. The capacity of its officers for service of the land indicated has been demonstrated over and over again. Its records in every part of tho world bear testimony to the disinterestedness of its aims, aiid the success of its efforts on behalf of the poor and morally diseased. Tho state would do well for itself if it called to its service for use in social reform work in' a greater measure than it has done hitherto the sanctified common sense with which the Salvation Army officer is armed in his crusado against tho evils, social rind spiritual, that afflict this -weary wor'd.