REFORMATIVE DETENTION

Evening Star, Issue 22202, 3 December 1935, Page 12

REFORMATIVE DETENTION

APPLICATION FOR REVIEW OF SENTENCE a UPHELD IN SUPREME COURT [Per United Press Association.] ' CHRISTCHURCH, December 3. Interesting observations on the application of sentences of reformative Retention were made by Mr Justice Northcroft in a reserved judgment dealing with an application for a review of a sentence imposed in Nelson by Mr Maunsell, S.M., on a prisoner who had been convicted of stealing money he had received on behalf of the Nelson Relief Workers’ Social Committee. In reducing the sentence imposed on Sidney George Hall from two years’ reformative detention to six months’ detention, his Honour stated that the power to order detention in excess ox the prescribed maximum periods of imprisonment should be employed only in exceptional circumstances, and where there was the strongest reason to anticipate beneficial results for the offender. In his judgment the present case did not reveal those exceptional prospects of rehabilitation which alone would justify a sentence in excess or the statutory maximum. “ In my opinion, reformative detention should not be resorted to for the imposition of a longer term of imprisonment than the prescribed maximum because the offence is a bad one or because the offender has a ■ bad record, said the judge. “In my judgment, this present case does not reveal those exceptional prospects of rehabilitation which alone would justify a sentence in excess of the statutory maximum, and for these reasons I consider that an appropriate sentence should have been one of imprisonment with hard labour for six months. Section sof the Crimes Amendment Act provides that every person sentenced by_ a magistrate to a period of reformative detention may apply ex-parte to a judge of the Supreme Court to review that sentence, and such judge may thereupon either uphold or reverse the sentence or reduce tho term. I entertain doubts as to whether this is an authority for the setting aside of such a sentence of reformative detention and for its replacement by a sentence of imprisonment with hard labour. In these circumstances I shall make an order for reduction of sentence of two years reformative detention to one of reformative detention for a period of six months.”