HABITUAL CRIMINALS

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 171, 15 April 1932, Page 8

HABITUAL CRIMINALS

League Suggests Reforms ENGLISH PRINCIPLE URGED Several recommendations dealing with habitual criminals were adopted at the conference of the Howard Fenal Reform League yesterday, at which Mr. R. M. Laing, M.A., Christchurch, presided. , , ~ , Mr. N. M. Richmond, Auckland, moved the following remits, which were ca rried. i~— * That in the interests ot justice, and in order to bring the New Zealand Jaw more into conformity with the English principle, the following recommendations should be put into effect:—That before any Person is declared a habitual criminal he must be proved to be persistently leading a dishonest or criminal life; that this question must form a separate charge, .to be investigated by the Jury; that duo notice must be given to the accused that this charge is to be made against him. That habitual criminals who are detained “during the pleasure of the Governor” should be conllned in some special part of the appropriate prison, and should be subjected to such, disciplinary and reformative influences and ba employed on such work as may be fitted to make them able and willing to earn an honest livelihood on discharge. That at each prison where such habitual criminals are confined, the Minister of Justice should appoint a committee of voluntary prison workers to assist the Prisons Board In Its function of reviewing their applications for release. That when an habitual criminal is released on probationary license he be placed either under the supervision of a full-time probation officer, or under that of any society or person named in the license who may be willing to take charge of the case. That the existing power to revoke such probationary license, whether its conditions have been fulfilled or not, and to arrest the licensee .without warrant and return him to prison, he abolished. Mr. Richmond said that the object of the resolution was to bring the New Zealand law into line with the broad principles of justice recognised in England. Attention was called to the extreme gravity of the sentence and to the fact that in certain cases very young persons whose mentality had not been tested and whose social history had not been investigated had been declared habitual criminals. In the course of the discussion, doubt was expressed whether the judges really appreciate the devastating effect of their sentence upon the lives of the individuals concerned. It was said that in England the . Prison Commissioner made considerable use of voluntary organisations in dealing with prisoners in an intimate and individual manner. It was regretted that the department in New Zealand did not avail itself of such help in bringing reformative influences to bear upon habitual criminals.

it was pointed out that an objection to the effect that a special indictment would result in disclosure of previous convictions could be overcome.