ABOLITION URGED
SOLITARY CONFINEMENT
The abolition of solitary- confinement as a punishment for prisoners was strongly urged in the House of Representatives yesterday by Mr. A. S. Richards (Government, Roskill) during consideration of the Estimates for the Prisons Department. Mr. Richards declared that such confinement was not working out beneficially to prison discipline, nor was it conducive to an improvement in the prisoner's character in after life.
Replying to the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Holland) Mr. Richards said the alternative he would suggest was that if a prisoner who offended against the rule were undergoing a 12-month sentence, something should be added to that period. • - .
The Minister of Justice and Prisons (Mr. Mason) said he took no delight in punishments, but it had to be recognised that there must be some means of carrying on a prison, and they could not overlook the feelings of warders if they were called on to withstand limitless provocation. He could see no alternative to the punishment mentioned, which was not, however, solitary confinement. It was close confinement, and the prisoner had plenty of exercise and fresh air, though he did not associate with others if he had been refractory. '
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 78, 29 September 1945, Page 9
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197ABOLITION URGED Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 78, 29 September 1945, Page 9
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