SEXUAL OFFENDERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 128, 1 June 1944, Page 6

SEXUAL OFFENDERS

SPECIAL TREATMENT

PRACTICAL RESULTS

The authorities had considered and were duly mindful of the public wellbeing in such matters, said the ,UnderSecretary of Justice, Mr. B. L. Dallard, in a comment on the recent remarks of the Chief Justice when sentencing a prisoner convicted of a sexual offence. Mr. Dallard's desire in pointing out the impracticability of setting up an institution for such a small number of offenders and also mentioning the undesirability of segregating them as a group was to remove any possible misapprehension. "I notice that on Tuesday last his Honour, when sentencing a man convicted of indecent assault, suggested that his earlier observations were misconstrued, and that'he did not intend to confine them solely to the offence of indecent exposure, but also to offences of the kind then before him," said Mr. Dallard. "Knowing something of the care taken in reporting the remarks of the Chief Justice, and knowing something of the precise manner in which he usually expresses himself, I concluded that, as reported, he was addressing his remarks to the particular class of offence then at issue. I was strengthened in this conclusion, also, by the fact that from an administrative point of view it would be unthinkable to house together in one institution exhibitionists .and sodomists. I further presumed that the Chief Justice would know, and I am glad of the opportunity of now stating, as the general public should know, that there is and has been for some years a special institution for the care of sexual perverts. . "Prisons Regulation 380 reads: 'Prisoners who have been sentenced for offences under sections 153 and 154 of the Crimes Act, 1908, shall, as far as possible, be segregated in one institution.' A special milieu under the direction of a psychiatrist has been arranged at the New Plymouth prison, and the whole routine has as its basis the psychological treatment of offenders. The institution is managed with unaisual liberality and humanity. It is ,due to the continued efforts of the enthusiastic staff that although, from the necessities of the case, a firmdiscip.M ne is required, it is associated with \ contented and improving prison

a, ni' pulation. .MEDICAL OFFICER'S REPORT. • «\\'. quotation from my annual renor t to Parliament for the year 1936, rontai ?""§ a summary of the medical officerl o work, is apropos and illuminae'ffT i's mv custom to submit each offpnd -r as ne arrives under my care to a vei'y complete psychological exa urination. Every inmate is tolH bvi "«"* that he has to report for •Pvaminit/'-on not only for physical rifflter but for any mental difflrnltv whn- « confronts him. I thus snpnrt hoLf'S outside my duties as Eician k/ Setting t0 know the in" riivSfmv chology of the inmates, and keen^if c *l«e psychological contact with the inmates during the tferiodof &i'fr detention. The Sal Routine of the prison is so Qi-i-nnoWi as in ii* ' a constant psychoI cannot praise too hlS^ W2* of the superintended '%, He takesthe widest view of his dl lt'e. s and.slS neither time nor effoi \^JJLia%f^ distractions for the ft imf!? Q % n ;F h nf itself comes under the. £ eadmg °f treatment in a psycholi. 'gical sense, and it is undertaken wil Vr" °P: ject. In my opinion sue \; °£ t tins treatment has the highest 1 on the mentality of the inmate s _\ • ' 'A have confidence in the re'i -v ~.rl present in force in New Ply, mourn, which has at least had a ve\ "£ re" markable practical statistical l *? u *v During the ten-year period '. Jr January 1, 1925, to December 6X > 1936, 114 male offenders have bk e^ discharged from the institution, ay "^ of these only four have returne\ x It is not claimed tliat these inmate^ ' have been 'cured,' but it does de-s monstrate that prison methods have so changed the invert's mentality '. that he has gained sufficient control \ of his tendency towards sexual abnormality that he no longer of- ' fends against the law. MEN CULPABLE AT LAW. "It should be borne in mind that the ■% majority of homosexuals are men of intelligence, who have a thorough ape , preciation of the nature and the c j ivrongness of their act and are consejuently culpable at law. Theirs are w Dffences that are bestial, contaminat- p ing, and socially harmful often to a ivide degree, and thus properly call j a 'or the deterrent sanctions of the law. ... [t is not helpful from a treatment point of view to suggest to these of- . fenders that they are sinned against fr Dy society in being sent to prison." oi