PRISON REFORM.

Evening Star, Issue 23129, 1 December 1938, Page 12

PRISON REFORM.

The British Home Secretary, Sir Samuel Hoare, could have put forward no stronger argument in favour of the Criminal Justice Bill, now before the House of Commons, than his mere reference to the terrors of the Middle Ages, 44 once again being dragged out of the dark corners of the past.” The topic under discussion precludes further remarks on the terrorism being enacted in some countries to-day, but mention of medievalism cannot help but recall to the public mind the fact that in its methods of handling wrong-doers the world, led by the British Empire, has made wonderful progress in humanitarism since the days of stocks, torture, frightful prison, accommodation, and life-wrecking sentences. Many people—evidently Sir Samuel Hoare and the principal spokesmen of the two opposition parties in the Commons are included among these —believe that perfection in prison reform has not yet been attained. The last remnants of shattered barbarism have yet to be swept away, and that is precisely what the British Criminal Justice Bill aims at accomplishing. An attempt is being made to provide an alternative to imprisonment, one of the main objectives of the Bill being to effect an immediate reduction in the numbers of young people received into prison and to provide for the ultimate abolition of imprisonment for young offenders dealt with by courts of summary jurisdiction. A series of new institutions in which, presumably, education and tactful guidance will completely supersede the old, primitive thought of punishment, are among the provisions of the Bill, while it is also proposed that capital punishment should be abolished.

Possibly the die-hard, “ spare the rod and spoil the child ” school of thought will still feel inclined to have its say. On the whole, however, it is certain that the majority of people to-day realise that the only really satisfactory method of purging the human race of delinquency lies in treating criminal inclinations or “ kinks ” as a malaise, to

be cured by the sympathetic practise of psychology rather than by brutality. Problems of heritage, upbringing, and early environment can be solved not by gaolers but by men of understanding and faith in the good that lies in all human beings. The spark of divinity must be kindled and fanned until it becomes the flame that never dies. Prisons, as most of them are at the present time, may be suitable for temporarily accommodating intoxicated motorists and others for whom carelessness and not criminal intent has caused trouble, but emphatically it is no place for impressionable young people, who during their period of incarceration will, as like as not, find much to encourage their anti-social proclivities. It is of interest to note that the Australian Minister for Education (Mr D. H. Drummond) is busy working out a system involving the establishment of a “ halfway ” institution, which will save even extreme cases among youthful offenders from gaol. In New Zealand a substantial measure of success has been obtained by the humanitarian methods so far established—the open-air life at various institutions and the educational and constructive work. New Zealanders interested in. penal reform will follow with close attention the developments in Great Britain presaged by the Criminal Justice Bill.