REVOLVER IN PUDDING

Evening Star, Issue 23653, 13 August 1940, Page 2

REVOLVER IN PUDDING

GAOL OFFICIALS' FIND The cunning of prisoners in New South Wales gaols in providing themselves, through friends outside, and through their own handicraft, with such things as firearms and wireless sets, was revealed at a conference of senior prison officials, the ComptrollerGeneral of Prisons, Colonel G. E. Murphy, and other departmental heads. It was stated, for example, that, as a precaution, a skewer is run through Christmas puddings sent into one of the gaols for prisoners as gifts from friends. One pudding thus tested was found to contain a loaded revolver. On the conference table were two E reserved peach tins, each with a false ottom. The tins, found in prisoners’ possession, had contained preserved peaches, and, beneath neatly-soldered false bottoms, wireless sets carefully concealed in cotton wool. Colonel Murphy told the conference that he was having a cabinet prepared for the younger and less experienced prison officials so that they could see some of the strange things, including deadly weapons, that found their way into gaols by all sorts of ingenious methods. _ ' , The conference —the first of its kind held in New South Wales—was called by Colonel Murphy, who, emphasising the need for personal contacts, said that, in the past, many prison officials only acquantance with their departmental heads was through the signatures of the latter on official documents. . : The conference discussed privately a large number of matters bearing on prison administration and reform, after the Minister of ■ J ustice, Mr Treatt, had opened proceedings. He said that such important questions as that of the effect of prison life on juvenile offenders offered a big and valuable field for discussion. Colonel Murphy will forward to the Minister any recommendations by the conference.