PRISON REFORM

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 80, 1 October 1918, Page 2

PRISON REFORM

ADDRESS BY MRS. BECK.

An interesting address on "Prison Reform" was giveh by Mrs. Beck last evening 'at a meetting of the Wellington branch of the" Women's' National Council. Mrs. J. C. Anderson presided. . . Mrs,. \ Beck said the conditions of prison life and rules were such that only those who had actually served a sentence could know those conditions first hand. The visitor saw only the surface, but !.even, the rules dealing with visits to prisoners were, in her opinion, unnecessarily severe. No man liked to receive visitors under the degrading conditions of standing behind bars and with a warder at his side. Although the conditions here were less severe than in Australia, they were; bad enough when men spent hour? » week in solitary, confinement.- The present prison routine had nothing elevating in it.- Men were not being taught to be better citizens.; they were given no elevating literature, anfl everyone knew good literature was one of f the befit educative mediums. The books they >vere allowed were of the most- elementary type. In the. present system . there was little difference, between hard labour prisoners and others], and those sentenced "to reformatory treatonent were not sufficiently segregated. Mrs. Beck described prisons in other parts of the world where a milder system prevailed. Especially she' spoke of Sing. Sing prison in th,e United States^ where recently the governor had instituted a completely'new system. There were three factors -which made for success in such a system. . One was selfgovernment, the second education (both outside an dintide the prison, 'as people formerly had refused to employ ex-, prisoners), and the third was peftonal interest, people.learning to take an interest in what happened to the prisoners. The speaker strongly advocated that women should interest themselves in the matter of juvenile crime, and see that children had the right conditions to make them grow properly, and so preventi juvenile crime ; instead of punishing-

Mrs. ißecl£* was thanked for her address. • ■.•'•.'