ON PAROLE

Evening Star, Issue 19023, 19 August 1925, Page 5

ON PAROLE

PENAL DEPARTMENT EXPERIMENTING PRISONERS ON THEIR HONOR TWO SUCCESSFUL CASES. Prats Allocation—By Telegraph—Copyrisht. Australian and li.Z. Press Association. MELBOURNE, August 19. (Received August 19, at 8.55 si.ni,) The Penal Department is conducting as an experiment a system known as the honor system. It consists of placing certain prisoners on their honor nob to escape. So far it has been entirely successful. In one case instanced a prisoner was serving a sentence of twelve months hard labor for manslaughter. His wile was very ill in hospital, and as she was incessantly calling him the prison authorities allowed him to visit her. Ho stayed at the hospital for five days and nights unguarded until his wile recovered, when he returned to gaol. The second case was that ot a prisoner who was serving an indeterminate sentence. The man played a leading part in a hold-up at the Middle Park branch of the English and Scottish Australian Bank in 1910. In gaol he was noted for his good conduct. His sight began to fail, and he was taken to the hospital, accompanied by a warder, for an operation on his eyes. There he lay in bed for nearly a month unguarded. When be recovered ho returned to gaol. The hospital authorities arc under no obligations to guard the prisoners. When these instances were reported in gaol several other prisoners developed mysterious complaints, but they were not allowed to visit the hospital tm trust.