THE HOUSE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3170, 22 August 1917, Page 6

THE HOUSE

The House of Representatives met at 2.30 p.m. PRISON REFORM. The Hon. J. A. HAN AN (Minister of Justice) moved for leave to present the annual report of the Prisons Department. Mr. P. C. WEBB (Grey) said that the prisons system of Now Zealand required drastic improvement. No ordinary criminal could spend a term in one of the Dominion prisons without coming out a worse man than when he entered. A member: Your experience? Mr. Webb: I am talking of criminals. Mr. L. M. Isi'tt (Christchurch North); A manifest improvement. (Laughter.) Mr. Webb said that the prisons were 6imply incubators for crimo. ; There was no attempt at all at classification of the prisoners in Wellington and Lyttolton. Men who had made slips were mixed with hardened criminals. The gossip of the gaols related to vice and crimo. The warders wero men who had no knowledge of tho proper handling of their fellow beings. Mr. Webb proceeded to protest against the treatment of prisoners on remand. Ho said 'that the men on remand were treated a great deal worse than convicted criminals. They were un-der-fed. Men on remand, within his own experience, had to steal bread from the long-term prisoners in order to satisfy their appetites. The prisoners were not allowed to read newspapers or to know what was happening in the world outside. They had 110 topic of conversation but their crimes. Ho had heard more filthy talk in prison that ho had ever heard outside. The prisons had no reformative influence at all. They were schools of criminality, and it would not bo expected that they would effect reform in any cases. Men were being turned looso with their criminal instincts in full play. Convicted men who wished to reform hud no encouragement at all. When they left prison the polico would keep in touch with them and inform their employers of their record, with tho result that the men were driven back into criminal paths. The Minister ought to give attention to 'the medical treatment of men in Lyttelton Gaol. There was no proper provision there for sick men. The prisoners who were in ill-health had to be confined in their cells. The present Minister of Justice had made some improvements in this respect. The prison food was clean and wholesome, but the quantity given to prisoners on remand was not sufficient. Tho classification was a mere pretence. Tho prisoners in Lyttelton wero classified to some extent in. their cells, but they wero mixed indiscriminately during their working and waking hours. The warders ought to have shorter hours of work. The men were overworked seriously at present. It was highly important, moreover. that tho warders should bo properly qualified men willi some knowledge of psychology and of modern methods of handling criminals. He hoped 'that the Government would check the habit of tho police of informing employers when an ox-proisoner entered their service. Hon. A. 1.. Herdman: You give me instances and I will inquire into them. Mr. Webb: "I will givo you names." Tho Government ought to see (.hat the prisoners were turned out of gaol better men than when they passed through the courts. Mr. .T. T. sf. HOHNRBY (Wairarapa) said that the records of Sing Sing prison in tho United States showed SO per cent, of recoveries among the juvenilo. prisoners. New Zealand was doing very little indeed in that direction. .Something ought to be done to prevent men with ■pronounced criminal tendencies reproducing their kind. .The motion for tho presentation of Jic report was talked out by Mr. .T. I'ayne (Grey Lynn), who was interrupted by the dinner adjournment.