NEW ZEALAND PRISONS.

Evening Star, Issue 23350, 21 August 1939, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND PRISONS.

Oxk of the most difficult problems that confront the Government of any State is that of dealing with Jawbreakers. To-day the main idea is reform rather than punishment. Efforts are rteadily directed to the task of restoring a prisoner to the ranks of the useful members of society. Jt is not easy -work, for in every community there are born people with very little appreciation of the difference between right and wrong, and they are the despair of the Prisons Board and the officials who aro sincerely anxious to help them. Still, much good work is being done, and in many cases first offenders and others are brought to see the error of their ways, and start a new life. One reassuring statement contained in the prisons report for last year’, which has been presented to Parliament, is that in the last half-century there has been a general downward trend in the number of commitments to prison in the Dominion. The decrease is substantial. In the year 1890 the ratio of prisoners to 10,000 of population was 08.01, while last year it was 13.84. The report discusses the developments in penal methods. It points out that the policy the department has striven to follow has been one of cautious progressivencss. In dealing with offenders against society it has always been considered unwise to proceed too far in advance of public opinion, following this idea up, the many improvements that have been made have not been effected dramatically, but by a steady evolutionary process of experimentation designed to keep the system in accord with developments overseas, at the same time making duo allowances and modifications to suit local requirements. The most important matter to which attention is being directed is improvement in methods designed to develop character and a sense of social responsibility. Care is being shown for the physical comfort and general health of the prisoners, and changes have been introduced in order to add interest to the work carried out in prisons and make it of value vocationally. Thesi things show a marked departure from the methods of the past, when prisoners wore treated so harshly that when they were discharged they carried with them feelings of sullen vindictiveness and bitterness. The Prisons Board says its definite policy is to err, if it must err, on the side of leniency rather than on that of harshness, and statistics show that in the great majority of cases this leniency has been amply justified. Most of those recommended for discharge or for release on probation make good. The figures reveal that of the total number released after undergoing sentences of Borstal detention and reformative detention or imprisonment with hard labour approximately 22 per cent, only have been reconvicted or failed to comply with the conditions of their license. One deplorable aspect of the crime record is the statement of the Superintendent of the Borstal institutions that many of those who find themselves committed show a lamentable lack of early training and discipline, and have developed an entirely warped mental outlook. To meet this condition the Borstal endeavours to do its part by subjecting them to a firm discipline that does not cramp self-reliance and initiative. A study of these reports brings the conviction that the prison system of this country is being conducted on wise and humane lines, the cardinal aim being to bring in or restore to good citizenship those who have broken the laws of the country.