THE PRISONS REPORT.

Evening Post, Volume L, Issue 48, 24 August 1895, Page 4

THE PRISONS REPORT.

The annual Prisons report of Lieut-Col. Home shows that at the end of the year there were 511 males and 44 females in the prisons, an inorease of 54, while 3398 males and 665 females passed through the various prisons in the year, a deorease of 173 oases. During the year 64 males and 29 females were detained in the prisons for snpposed lunaoy or delirium tremens, and Col. Hume protests strongly against snoh oases being sent to the prisons, where there are not facilities for curative treatment, or time to properly watoh and nurse them. One hnn died and thirty-three males and 5 females wore undergoing penal servitude at the end °f™» 7«". , The net oost per prisoner was J837 as ad, whioh inelndes the comparatively expensive small prisons. Col. Hume also oondemng the pernioiouo onstom of sending "infants" to prison, though the gaolers do their best to isolate them from ordinary criminals. There were seven ohildren under 12 ?**?L o£ "S? ** prißOn kut year, 47 from 10 to 16, and 291 from 15 to 20, a tot.] inorease' of 78 on 1893. Only one offence was recorded against a warder. - As regards -long-sentence prisoners, Col. Hume state* that the classification system and remission scale require alterations, and it is believed that if, instead of as at present, whenremisnons of one-fourth of the Bentenoes, less tbe first three months, are granted to all sentences of over three months for industry and good conduct, a regulation was issued granting- the present remission on all first oonvlotions, with one-half the remission on •eoond sentences, and no remission on third or more sentences, it would prove both deterrent and reformatory, but before finally making these recommendations more reliable data is required, and is being obtained. HBST OOTNDIRS. The First Offenders Probation Aot oontinues to work satisfactorily. Last year 75 persons were placed upon probation, as against 59 in 1893. Of these, 39 satisfactorily earned out the conditions of their licences and were discharged, 2 were re-arrested and committed to prißon, 1 absconded, and 33 •fall remain under the supervision of tbe Probation Officers, completing their respective terms of probation. The amount of opsts ordered to be paid by the variouß Courts before whom these offenders were brought was £248 17s 2d, of whioh £173 Os ,2d had been actually paid at the end of the year, and the greater portion of the remainder will be paid by instalments as it beoomes dae. The approximate oost of keeping these offenders, had they been sent to rions, would have been .£IB6O, whioh, added the amount of oost, &0., actually paid «j T f« *,, BB * Tin *> of -* 2033 0« 2d to the colony! Of the 633 persons placed on probation since the Aot jame into foroe in Ootober, 1886, 540 have been disoharged after satisfactorily carrying out all the conditions of their licenses, 37 have been re-arrested and sentenoed to various terms of imprisonment 2 - !? T ?^fe d i, 16 SK c elnded the Tiritanoe of the Probation Officers, and 38 still remain under probation. The report quotes the _o»se of a, Uriwera native admitted on probation after oonviotion for larceny as a baUee. The man has paid the £16 costs in instalments, kept oontinnally at work ever since shearing, *o. though previously he had been lazy and ill-disposed, and instead of being turned into a oriminal, as he would probably have 'been had he been placed in gaol, has, sinoe his admission to probation in September, 1893, been most exemplary in his conduct. - a bad ran k>b vagrants. -vil" » "••stnwt from the report wnionwiUbeof espeoial interest'to, gentle, men contemplating " vagranoy ":— " With a view to making imprisonment more rigors' V****"*. w£o ™*c prison, their homes, a new dietary scale has been introtfir« JSTtk? en "P* 6 ***? wntenoes of three months or under, and has been on trial for the last six months; but, owing tokn •Iterabon made contrary to my reoom. mendations the scale v sfill too liberal, and suggestions for curtailing some of the items ate fc be made, and special labour, suoh as placing oaknm, for this class of prisoners within the prisons, instead of being put in association on the works with the longerMntenoed ones, is what is required, as the Mtooiatipn of the shorter-sentenced prisonera with those servintr long terms is detrimental to discipline, and tends to make short sentences neither deterrent nor reformatory." TH^WK-HNQTON PRISONS. This is what Lient.-Col. Hume "has to say respecting' the Wellington prisons i— The pjoson at Hount Cook is not yet oonneoted with the main drain*, and no »y*t«m of light.

ng has yet been fixed upon, but it is believed ;hat these defeota will soon be made good ; md it is hoped at no distant date the prisoners at the Terrace will be removed to Mount 7ook. With the exception of the Dunedin Prison, the Terrace is the worst in the :olony, and, in my opinion, the greater part >f it is fast becoming unfit for habitation. [t is neither safe, wholesome, nor spacious >nongh for present requirements, and imprisonment cannot be made either deterrent or reformatory in the buildings that at present exist. The Boonor this establishmont is closed, and the prisoners transferred to Mount Cook, the better for all oonoerned.