MANUFACTURING CRIMINALS

Evening Star, Issue 14516, 7 November 1910, Page 3

MANUFACTURING CRIMINALS

AND PREVENTING THEM. * On Friday nigirt, in the Council CbamW, Mr A. R. Barclay gave an addresson tho above subject. Canon Curaoo-Siggere (chainnan) introduced the speaker in complimentary terms. He «ud Mr Barclay wa» one of the recognised authorities in New Zealand on constitutional questions, and that he had given much attention to the matter of prison reform. He ako referred with warm approval to the prisoners' aid associations, which wero doing much good in England and in New Zealand.

Mr Barclay said his address was really meant. to try to interest people in the prison reform movement, fortunately now well on its way in Now Zealand. Tho good work that had been done was largely due to the efforts of a very small but very able hand, of men and women. There was tho -Rev. Mr Kayll, now happily in the Government service, and outside departmental ranks there was the chairman, the Rev. Rutherford Waddell, Mr Gilkison, the invaluable secretary (Miss Mac George), and a few others who might be counted 1 on the fingers of both hands. The. instrument carrying out tho work was the Hon. Dr Findlay, and it was much to the credit of his head ar.d his heart that he had the intellect and the humanitarianism to blaze a new track in our prison system. In this matter we were really behind other countries. The speaker sketched the history of prison reform from Howard's tiino to tho present da) pointing out how slow it was, Howards book appearing in 1777, whilo Miilbunk Prison was not built till 1811, and said that tho present position was that while tho old complaints of cruelty, of pnnishment amounting to torture, of insanitary conditions, of loathfomo, pestilential, narrow vaults, of insufficient and unwholesome food wero largely swept away, still the system was not sftisfactory, and tho result* were bad. In New Zealand the present staff wa6. on the whole, a most excellent one. Ho had had many op pi > minifies of hearing complaints, but fov. or nono had ever reached him iu respect to the officers who had charge of our prisons. That was not the trouble. It was the system that was defective. Tho vital point was that physical suffering was looked upon as the sole remedy that could be applied to moral depravity. A man came out of gaol in most cases, if anything, worse than whon ho went in. Tho number of recidivists or criminals returning to gaol went far to prove this, being considerably over SO per cent, of all criminals in " England and in New Zealand. Then came tho all-important fact that these things had been greatly altered and vastly improved in other countries. They had "the undoubted fact that different methods gave very much better result*. The keynote of these different methods was that instead of the treatment being confined to tho physical punishment of criminals, it was directed towards improving them physically, mentally, and morally. Tho criminal was regarded as a man who was to be raised by every possible means from the place to which he had sunk to a higher piano in the world. This was done by a method that at first glance might not seem very promising. It was done by turning the prison into a sort of technical school, roughly speaking. The prisoner was trained, educated, drilled, his physical well-being carefully looked after, and —a most important feature —he was influenced by rewards rather than by publishment. He learned that if he genuinely improved himself and worked for that end it would pay him handsomely. He was treated as a fellow human being whom his guardians were anxious to help and assist. Indeterminate sentence was, of course, an indispensable feature of the system. Tho man got his release when he was fit for it, and not before. The results were amazing. People- who scoffed at first and asked " Could yon make criminals into angels by teaching them algebra or turn, them into saints by making them swing clubs?" lived to see the mrracle accomplished. Tho speaker dealt in detail with the Ehnira, the Borstal!, and the New South Wales systems, pointing out that the recidivists in these cases had decreased enormously. He concluded by quoting a number of unimpeachable testimonies as to the effect of the reforms in New South Wales, of which the following is an example : ''The old system, which by its harsh measures belittled manhood and tended to fan evil and si limbering passions into a flame, is gone to the last vestige, never to return. The new system is firmly established. By its generous and more humane treatment; its schoolmaster and excellent library, to diffuse and inspire the love of knowledge; its sympathetic hospital arrangements, with its classification of diseases; its abolition of dark cells and diminution of solitary confinement; its segregation of prisoners, which prevents evil communication to corrupt good manners, and by many similar means,.a new day is ushered in."—(Report of the Presbyterian chaplain, the Rev. Thomas Morgan, Darlinghurst Gaol.) ..ir 11. Gilkison proposed a hearty vote of thanks to Mr Barclay, and spoke iu stirring; terms of the evils of the old system and the vast improvement effected by new methods. He concluded a very interesting speech by urging united effort ami strenuous earn and attention to the work now in progress, and tho further steps it would be necessary to take in the future. A vote of thanks to the chairman and an appreciative reference to the enthusiastic secretary. Miss Mac George, concluded the meeting.