PRISONS.

Evening Star, Issue 22774, 8 October 1937, Page 8

PRISONS.

New Zealand, for the most part, has reason to be well satisfied with the working of its prisons and penal institutions. Based to a great extent on what is being done in Great Britain to combat the ever-present criminal problem, the local system is sufficiently elastic to sheet home to the more malignant type of wrongdoer a punishment adequate for deterrent purposes and the same time give minor or youthful offender both a sympathetic hearing and a chance to re-establish himself as a respectable member of society. According to the annual report of the Prisons Department, the prison population of the Dominion is steadily decreasing, the figures for the year showing that 368 persons fewer were received this year than last year. That this sthte of affairs is no mere flash in the pan is proved by the further information that the tendency towards diminution has been in evidence for some years, resulting in the gratifying position that the prison population today is 50 per cent. less than it was in 1932. “ Going still further bapk,” states the report, " the improvement is more noticeable, for in 1890 the percentage of prisoners per 10,000 of population was 38.61, whereas the latest percentage is 11.36.” Doubtless the probation system has had much to do with the decline in the number of unfortunates who go to gaol, but the disparity between the older figures and those of to-day is of dimensions that encourage the belief that there is also a decrease in crime. The principle of probation must be good; if. it were not so, it would he reasonable to conjecture that the former higher number of prisoners would be kept up by the persons who did not profit from the first warning.

The Controller-General, however, is worried over a small increase in the number of offences against the person. An examination of the detailed criminal statistics shows that this increase has been made up largely by the greater number of people imprisoned for negligently driving motor vehicles, causing death. Again, crimes of violence involving aggravated assault and assault with intent to rob have swelled the figures. The problem of the negligent motorist is .now receiving so much attention that further comment would be superfluous, but it would seem that the public is entitled to better protection than apparently exists at the moment from crimes of violence. The case of the young woman who was brutally assaulted in Wanganui lends point to an argument in favour of the imposition of more drastic penalties for this class of offence. Some years ago an epidemic of garrotting which alarmed London was finally rooted out only by recourse to the “ cat,” and there must be mauy otherwise humane persons who would not consider that a flogging was too severe penalty for diabolical attacks on innocent, law-abiding citizens in New Zealand. However, in deference to the feelings of a large body of people who abhor the idea of legalised physical chastisement, it may be advisable to consider ways and means of substituting a more strongly-favoured punitive policy. For many years there has been criticism of the gaol sentence that has been too short to have much effect other than the metaphorical branding of a criminal, without the virtues that might well accrue from a fairly lengthy period of reformative training. The Controller-General himself states that the purpose of imprisonment, apart from the punitive and deterrent aspect, which seems to bo the main idea underlying the short sentence, is the inculcation of habits of industry and orderliness and a sense of social responsibility. It is clear that an offender addicted to violence will not have his unsocial habits eradicated during a comparatively short sentence. If he is found to be inherently vicious rather than mentally deficient, he should, in the interests of public safety, be subjected to the maximum sentence allowed by the law. '