LINKED PROBLEMS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 121, 25 May 1933, Page 20

LINKED PROBLEMS

UNEMPLOYMENT AND CRIME

Tv the course of an address at the annual meeting of the -Howard League for I'onal .Reform ia Auckland, Mr. John A. Brailsfoi'd spoke at length on the connection between unemployment and crime. He quoted from the "Howard Journal" for 1032 a statement gmug facts in support of it's contention that the increase in crime in 1930 was duo to "the spectre of poverty and unemployment, the aftermath of , ,wur and the creeping paralysis of trade and industry." "Admitting freely that each lawbreaker is a problem in himself, the organ of your league declares (said Mr. Brailsford) that the overwhelming social evils are a predisposing cause and that "the statesman who removes or mitigates these evils will do more than nil the police and prisons and penal reformers in creation to reduce crime and protect society.' It {toes on to point out, on the authority of the Home Secretary's statement to Parliament, that 'the graph of crime has, year after year, moved up and down in a course almost exacUy i parallel to the unemployment graph. The peak of unemployment after the South African War came in 1008, and in that same year the figure for crime readied the highest point known until the next postwar period. The lowest figures of all were reached in 1916-17 when every ablebodied man and woman could obtain a job at a living -wage and —what is of tremendous significance^—felt that society had ueed of them.'" Mr. Brailsford disputed the statement made in some quarters that the increase in crime could be checked by reversion to harsh methods. He criticised existing reformatory methods, and stated that the worst and most degrading feature of our prison regime was what many regarded with pride—the indeterminate sentences given for alleged purposes of reform. This was a tragic faree —an axe held constantly over the prisoner's neck by the gaolers. It was not surprising that men when convicted asked to be sentenced to hard labour rather than reformative detention. They knew that if the sentence

was not fixed, a year or two years might be added' to their term simply on the strength of an adverse report from the prison officers to the visiting board. The head of .a so-called. reformatory has assured him that there was no hope of reforming men inside-any such institution; the reforming must be .done'before they come or after they were released. • 'Yon cannot reform one .who feels that you have your heel on his neck (said Mr. Brailsford), and that is how the', average prisoner feels, first towards the prison officers and then towards the community. If we choose to retaliate as a community against the lawbreaker by punishing him, let us be honest and call it punishment and give a straight-out sentence and let us stop talking nonsense about reforming. Probation und after-care were the more necessary as agencies of reform, ho added. The Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society was doing valuable work, but he believed (lie best influence could be exerted by_ private people voluntarily assisting ex-prison-ers to find their feet in the community. While .nftcr-eare and probation of. the right, kind were infinitely better than prison, before-care was what was really needed. The first need was to assure .opportunity of employment. But even in normal times many line boys suffered and came to grief because they found no proper outlet for a spirit of adventure. Boys' flubs and. Scouting were of great value. Though he disliked the slight militarist element in the Scout movement, he considered it was doing splendid work in meeting youth's demand for adventure. Much more should be done in this direction. We should have youth hostels for young trampers as in England and Europe, and we should aim in this sea-girt country to offer opportunities of seafaring and sea-travel to adolescents. But above all we' must rid ourselves of the curse of youth unemployment. He was glad to know that experts in Christehurch and Wellington were trying to work out a scheme of part-time work and . part-time education which would be acceptable to the Government. This would provide more young people with jobs and at the same time improve education. "We must give youth its fair opportunity," concluded Mr. Brailsford. "To deprive youth of hope is to deprive it of the best nart of I'fe itself." '