WINSTON CHURCHILL AS PRISON REFORMER

Evening Star, Issue 14512, 2 November 1910, Page 6

WINSTON CHURCHILL AS PRISON REFORMER

Whatever one’s views on the subject of the Right lion. Winston Churchill’s political faith, or one’s opinion of him as an individual, only ihcse who are utterly blinded bj political prejudices can honestly deny thai as Home (secretary he ' is just a much the “ right man in the rich p.aco” as is John Bums at the head a the Local Government Board- Mr Churchill by his prompt action in squashing or reduc nig many ridiculously harsh sentences passa on minor offenders by Diacos of the uupaii Bench, has proved himself possessed of i fund of sound and sane bumamtananism am a strong sense of justice. In the short ipact of time Mr Churchill has been at the Ho mi Office be has won the respect of many of tin rank and tile of the Conservative party, wh( had been pleased to talk of him os a men “ political firebrand ” and an " impossibl* person,” when viewed in the light of a candi date for one of the great»offices of State. In his latest role he apears before the world as a level-headed, constructive stalesman. It is that of a reformer. Mr Churchill cas produced, and introduced* to the House of Commons last Wednesday evening. the most far-reaching scheme of prison reform suggested in the present generation. It is a scheme which, when carried out, will accomplish a revolution in our prison system and our methods of dealing with certain classes of offenders and criminals. He desires m tear up, root and branch, some of the most distinguishing characteristics of our prison system. His speech in introducing hj s measure was a broad, humanitarian exposition of the blots on our system that ought to have been cleared away years ago. and his reforms an first in the direction of keeping the man oj youth guilty of a single lapse out of prisot whenever possible, and then of giving the re leased prisoner a chance to become a respectable member of society again. Mr Churchill’s view is that the first principle to guide us to the establishment of a good prison system is to prevent as many people as possible from getting into prison at all. To send a man to prison means not only an injury to the individual, but a direct loss tn the Stats. Last year 90,000 persons—sU pH cent, of them for being " drunk and dis orderly ” —were committed to prison becausi they could rot immediately pay the fines in flictcd. Tile enforcement of a fine is a mucl belter punishment in such cases than coni initial for ten or fourteen days, for release ii often celebrated by the prisoner in a most undesirable fashion, but the enforcement ol a lino means a period of temperance and saving which achieves the very purpose the State had in view in the infficlion of punishment.

Mr Churchill desires to pass a short Act tho main principle of which will he to secure a certain period of time to every person of fixed abode in pay any line which may be indicted upon him. By this means the State will make a double gain. It will reedva money from the offenders, and escape having to keep them for ten or fourteen days, or perhaps a month. Another branch of the problem is the treatment of offenders between sixteen and twenty-one. Mr Churchill estimates that every year 5,000 youths are committed to prison for offences which ought to be punished 1 by' some to:in of physical instruclion, at once ealu'ary and extremely clPagreratU —a sort of defaulters’ drill, for youths wl e indulge in such offences as gambling, pitcl • and-toss, rowdyism, stone-throwing, swearing, playing football in the street, breaking street lamps,”and other “crimes” which are merely the outcome of boisterous and exuberant spirits and the ill-regulated mind of youth. Mr Churchill is certain that some method of the kind can be devised, which, with proper regard to conditions of employment, would inflict a punishment on the boy and not degrade or injure him, but prove of positive benefit.. To suffragists and other offcnderi sent- to prison for offences “not. involving moral turpitude. ’ Mr Churchill is already making concessions winch free them from aL the degrading conditions which formerly at Inched"to their confinement. He lias also decided to reduce the maximum period for ■viii'h i prhnncr can be kept in solitary confinement to one month, save in the case of old offenders sentenced to penal servitude. Another and most important proposal made Iv the Home, Secretary is for the abolition of the highly unsatisfactory “ tickct-of-leavo system, with ns vexatious and aft/m very rmschi''Vo:is accompaniment of police sup virion, which has proved a great itnpedim n lo men who arc eidcavoring to resume them place in the ranks ot honest industry after sc-rvim: a term hi prifon. Mr Churchill proposes to establish a new central** a«mocy of a Eemi-official character, half of the members representing the authorities and half representing the different pri'.ouers’ aid societies. There will be an individual study of every ease, and all convicts will he distributed by the central agency b■’tween tie diffiucnt aid societies of all denominations and charitable societies. A convict when he leaves prison will ha [. c more to do with the police, but will be deal with through the agency of tn&c working under the central body.—Londoi correspondent