PRISON REFORM

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 140, 13 June 1912, Page 8

PRISON REFORM

m WHAT IS BEING DONE IMPROVED CLASSIFICATION TJOEE YAEIED RATIONS* The subject of prison reform was briefly touched upon at the annual meeting of the Discharged Prisoners Aid Society. The Minister of Justice (Hon. J. A. Hanan) to-day told a Post reporter something of what hae already been done, and what i 6 in contemplation. Among other proposals which he had instructed should b© given, effect to, he said, was that Lyttelton prison should be set aside for the hardened and incorrigible class of prisoners. The prison is strong, and contains workshops in which the prisoners can be given 'suitable employment without the necessity of marching them through the public streets. A better system of 'classification would have to be inaugurated. Before that could be done it would be neoeesary to provide accommodation elsewhere for the female prisoners at present confined in the Lyttelton prison, and also to subdivide the exercise yard so that prisoners could be kept separate, thus assisting to prevent a recurrence of the recent trouble at that prison. If the female prisoners were removed from Lyttelton the portion of the prison at present occupied by them could bo utilised for the detention of male prisoners waiting trial or on remand, also for youths prior to their removal to a reformative prison. The practice of confining male and female prisoners in the same building had not, he said, proved altogether satisfactory, and in order to overcome the difficulty in, that direction he had two proposals in. view. One was that the Dunedin female prison be re-opened and set apart for th-a detention of female prison* ers. The others was that tho Dunedin. prison should be set apart for females i and a, small number cf male prisoners j on remand and awaiting trial, and those undergoing ceutenoes of, say, thirty days and under for minor offices. By removing female prisoners from other prisons to Dunedin thtrro would be more space available for the proper classification of male prisoners in the other prisons! With regard to the Invercargill Reformative Prison, ho had decided that it shall be set apart entirely for the detention of youths under the age ot twenty-five years who Had been sentenced to either reformative treatment, or hard labour, and who had not been previously convicted. -Further, he had decided that a prisoner should be allowed to write and receive two letters a month, providing his conduct has been satisfactory, and that correspondence 'should be forwarded on paper which gave no indication of the source of its origin. A more varied ration scale was also desirable, and he found that this could be done by a trifling additional cost, so that he has asked for recommendations on the subject from the different gaolers. Regarding the proposal to havo a Local Prison Board in each town where there is a prison for the detention of prisoners under young reformative treatment, the Minister remarked that there was much to be said in favour of the proposal. He was disposed to think that as time went on local boards would be necessary. Such a board, he thought, , should Bee each prisoner on arrival, and watch his progress from month to month, and only recommend his release when it was personally satisfied that he had been sufficiently reformed. At the present time prisoners' petitions for release were considered by a Central Board, the members of which were not in blosß touch with .the prisoners whose petitions they had to consider. ' Up to the present it had not been the custom to ask gaolers to report as to the conduct of prisoners undergoing reformative treatment as to whether, in their opinion, the prisoners were sufficiently reformed to warrant their release. He had now issued instructions that in all cases where a prisoner applied to the board for release a full report Bhould be furnished by the gaoler, giving a full history of the prisoner while in prison, especially in regard to' his conduct and industry, and whether he had taken advantage of the facilities offered for improvement, and whether he was sufficiently reformed to warrant his being granteihis liberty.