PRISONERS' AID

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 50, 27 August 1938, Page 14

PRISONERS' AID

INCREASED GRANTS SOUGHT

•A request that the grants to prisoners' aid societies should be increased was made by Mr. F. W. Schramm (Government, Auckland East) in the House of Representatives yesterday when the Prisons Vote was under discussion. Mr. Schramm also asked for an explanation of the sum of £4500, representing gratuities and earnings of prisoners. The Attorney-General (the Hon. H. G. R. Mason) explained that prisoners received gratuities in accordance with the marks they received for industry and good conduct, and prisoners' dependants received sustenance according to their needs, based on the prisoners' earnings. The maximum amount a prisoner could earn was 26s 8d a week, and this was paid after the first month. That explained partly why the payment to the prisoners' aid societies "was on a smaller scale than it otherwise might have been. The gratuities being paid made the burden on the societies comparatively light. Prisoners' dependants got nothing if they were not in need, and prisoners were not entitled to the 26s 8d a week as of right. Mr. Schramm said that many prisoners did not get any gratuities, and many did not receive wages. Men who served one month often found it harder to get back into employment than those who had served two or three years. He considered the grants to the societies totally inadequate.