PRISON TO SCHOOL

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 48, 26 February 1927, Page 10

PRISON TO SCHOOL

PASSING OF OLD TERRACE GAOL .-■-■■ -— i CRIME AND ITS TREATMENT NEW AND OLD. METHODS CONTRASTED Fanciful though it would be to regard the replacement of the Terrace Gaol by the new Te Aro School as symbolic cf the Dominion's t>rogress in thought and morals, "the wonderful strides made in the humane treatment of offenders sine.c the gaol was built justify the thought as a happy augury. Gradually the idea that crime is only a form of mental disease has gained ground, and even those who aro not ready to accept it in its entirety realise that the day of brjtal . punishments has passed, and that if the offender against social Jaws is to be reclaimed, it is to be by just treatment and recognition of whatever manhood is in him, coupled with a salutary, invigorating discipline that will stiffen his self control. Just how far removed .from this ideal the old methods were, can be appreciated only after a talk with one of the older officials. ' ■

Fifty years ago there were not lacking men.who felt the unjustness and saw the debasing effects of indi-jrimin-ate harsh -treatment, but they were powerless against the regulations, then given effect with machine-like rigour, Many of them wished to,\and some of them- did, exercise their authority to diminish the briitalising punishments for trivial prison offences, but the history of the Terrace Gaoi goes back very close to the days written of by Marcus Clarke, when the prisoner was looked .on as a dangerous animal, as indeed he frequently became uu'der the system then in vogue, unless ids spirit* were broken, and novel ideas were then distinctly unwelcome to the prison-auth-orities. Mr. J. C. Scanlon, lately gaoler at the Terrace, and now retired, gave a great deal of thought to pristn reforms, and interested himself in some cf those under his charge j with success." It is his experience of ! both old arid .new systems, freely given to a "Post"-reporter, that enables an interesting comparison to be made. /.GRIM REMINDERS. "Nowhere in Wellington could one gain a more profound appreeiatUrj of tho changed outlook towards crime and criminals than in and abound this old gaol. • Side by side on the wall near the front door are five small black-paint crosses and five numbers, denoting the graves of prisoners executed in the long ago, when it was; the' practice to inter such people ;in the gaol grounds. The bodies have been removed and interred elsewhere, but the impiession of the reticent crosses is in strong contrast to the modern practice of Ijaiidirig the remains to relatives for disposal, or, where there are no\next-of-kin, burying them in a public cemetery. There is grim humour in tho verdict at the inquest on the body of a man hanged in the 'fifties, for a murder on a ship that he died "by the visiration of God," a stark disregard of fact that, extended^to the present day, would make de.ith by. motor accident as natural, ai end as death ,by i a stroke of lightning. ' ... DEBASING^ PUNISHMENT. When it was possible to seriously regard death by hanging as a manifestation of Divine wrath, the outlook on prisoners, who Were regarded in -the mass as capable of any villainy, may be imagined. Neither, the ; public' nor the officials of the gaols' wasted much sympathy on the prisoners of the 'fifties. Iz must be admitted that they were a much tougher lot tlipn tho evildoers of to-day, and whatever their nature inl'the* beginning, a sojourn in gaol toughened them. more. Warders then had to be "men of their hands," and rough arid tumble was the rocky road to discipline. Behind the warder stood the grating and the cat, symbolic of authority, and it was only by force when, necessary that the warder could hope io hold his own during the daily task. Heavy punishments for minoV offences made ■ for brutality, and warders were unwise to turn their backs'to men armed with, shovels. Moral suasion was unknown. . Each warder vied with the other in securing adverse reports on prisoners, and under the old provincial administration, when each gaol was worked ;at the will of, the local administrators, almost anything could be constituted an offence. Insolence, stealing another prisoner's food, stealing tobacco one from another, stopping to investigate what looked like the butt of a cigar while on the way to work in the streets, all formed the subject of .'reports, and brought punishments.' ' FIFTY LASHES—THEN WORK. The lot of the sub-normal person who had the ill-luck to be imprisoned in those days was pitiable. One such man, who would, be looked on as a harmless crank to-day, repeated 1 small offences so often that he was looked upon as a deliberate insolent offender, and ,on one occasion received 50 iashes in the morning, and was put to work under police supervision in the garden in the afternoon. To-day he would have been immediately placed under medical observation, but then his pitifully trivial offences : increased until he was given 100 lashes one day, before it dawned on the officials that he was "not all there." One hundred lashes! Fifty lashes and to work afterwards! Nowadays, when some offender receives ten.lashes for a serious offence, he is treated as an invalid under medical observation. Then, prisoners who struck other prisoners, whatever the provocation, were flogged. Local finance played almost as important a part in the conduct Oi the provincial prisons as the whims of the officials. Dunedin was the most prcsperoug of the provinces, and tho inmates of its gaol occasionally received tobacco. Those unfortunate enough to misdemean themselves in the impecunious Auckland district had a very lean time indeed. 1 METHODS STANDARDISED. With the abolition of the provincial system came the standardisation of the conduct of prisons by, Colonel Hume, formerly governor of the big TSrglish prison at Wormwood Scrubbs. Thoroughly imbued with military methods, and something of a martiiiet, he was extremely conservative in his outlook towards crime and prisoners, and regarded all attempts at education or improving them as a waste of time, as is clearly shown in his reports of 1881. Long sentences were then the rule, twenty years being not uncommon, while the average was eight years. Colonel Hume did away with the issue of tobacco to all except first-class prisoners. Those in touch with prisons know to what lengths men will go to secure a smoke, or oven a chew, chewing the same •'quid" ever and over again, and hiding it to dry. Instead of tobacco, Colonel Hume instituted a system of gratuities, whereby twenty conduct marks entitled the prisoner to Id. The elaborate method of awards

and deductions permitted perfectly behaved prisoners to earn as much as Is Id a w-eek, but the result in the average was about Gd. To-day prisoners can earn from Gd a day up to as much as Is, enabling- habitual criminals to come out with £30 or £,40, which gives them the opportunity to inako a- fresh start.

Those were the days when there were four.men in a cell little bigger than that given to one man to-day. Four hammocks were strapped to the wall, with just room for the door to open and no more, and with just sufficient room between the, hammocks to stand up to undress. There was a narrow slit beneath the door, and on r.ummer mornings warders often found th-j men sleeping on the floor, with their heads near the only fresh ah-.

Not so very long ago the food ration Was lilb of bread, Jib of meat without bone, lib of potatoes, and' 2oz of vegetables. Two ounces of soap per week per man were allowed for personal cleanliness and washing clothes. WORK IN IRONS. As late as 1877 prisoners went to work in leg irons, ponderous, clanking impediments, a pair of which, now iv the Dominion Museum, weighs SOlb. Made of ljin. iron, this pair is worn to half an, inch, thick by dragging it along the roads, and nearly worn through in places. They arc a pair of the original irons that came from the convict settlement at Port Arthur, Tasmania, and were the type standardised in all prisons then. Until quite recent .time:! men wore them in the condemned cells, and the clink of the hammer striking off the rivets was the signal to others in the gaol that the condemned man was on.his way to the scaffold. In contrast with the serviceable cutlery issued at mealtimes to-day, the prison table equipment of old eor.sisted oi: wooden spoons and tin knives, no forks being provided. Later, the wood-, en spoons gave place to tin. spoons stamped in the goal. Then the men fed morosely apart; to-day the trend is towards communal meals.'

Bread and water treatment to-day is a severe penalty, but in the old regime the wretch who furtively snatched up a bit of newspaper blowing across the road was put on bread and water for three days. Contrast this with the provision by.ithe State to-day of weekly newspapers for prisoners, and th<3 permissible provision of further approved literature by relatives. . < DUNGEONS DARK. The old punishment cells of the Terrace Gaol, known to prisoners as the "dummy," wpuld be regarded with horror by humane people to-day. They were four in number, with concrete walls three feet thick. They, were under the old north wing, and the only light that came to them, was through two 'fdeadlights," such as are seen on tho decks of ships. • These were in the floor of the room above, anil got only the light reflected from its walls. Bed in the "dummy' consisted of a plank three feet wide,, /hinged to the wall, and locked against it in the daytime, so that the prisoner "had to sit on the cold concrete or stand up all the time. To encourage the prisoner's Christian fortitude, he was prpvidqd with a Bible, though he could not see to read it. These cells were in common use many years ago, and it was somewhat of a humorous point of honour with warders to see to it that the delinquent went down the steep steps-precipitately. As this usually meant striking the concrete floor with his head, it was considered etiquette by the prisoners to avoid this if possible, even though in the alternative their feet slipped and their shoulders struck the steps on the way down. '■ '. .;■.' ••■■.■■-'■. FEW" PRIVILEGES. Visits and letters were rare events in the Terrace Gaol in its earlier days. A visit was only once in three months, when the prisoner was first admitted, and the receipt of only one letter, in the same period. As time crept on, a visit and a lettor every two months were allowed, and later a visit and a letter a month. Now the prisoner is allowed to write three letters within seven days ,of admission, and is allowed, in the case of relatives, a weekly letter and visit, and, if there are special circumstances, this can be extended at the discretion of the gaoler. , "

"Useful men put in' for short terms in the old days were likely to find their stay lengthy. There was the case of a carpenter, in Dunedin, who was put in for 14 days for a light offence, but, on account of trivial offences against the gaol regulations, his term .eventually was extended to 12 months. When eaeli gaol worked under its own whims, in the provincial days, and good tradesmen 1 were scarce, it was easy enough to find breaches 'of ithe rules. A MODERN GAOL. . : Built to suit the public sentiment towards malefactors in'lß49, the 1 Terrace Gaol was then probably regarded as an ideal edifice, but it is just asvwell that it is being dismantled, because it does not fit in with more modern principles. No gaol should be made as attractive as a V.M.C.A., lest it become too popular with those who do not love honest ways, but the Terrace Gaol, is all too redolent of the spirit of those old days to be in unison with the spirit of present-day penology. v A few prisoners are being kept there unt:l the demolition is complete, but the bulk' of Wellington's prisoners are now at Mount Crawford, engaged on work in connection with the' new gaol there. It will be a thoroughly up to date building, in which ventilation and space are beiiig given due attention. Tho windows will be at the height of the ordinary house window. There will be an up-to-date infirmary suitable subdivisions for appropriate classification of offenders, a bake-house for the making of gaol bread, and workshops, etc. A library will be provided, and there will be provision for lectures, and a school.