MISPLACED LENIENCY

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 May 1931, Page 2

MISPLACED LENIENCY

ENGLISH JUDGE’S REMARKS, In passing sentence on John Adams, aged 50, a tailor, and Thomas Henry Hodge, aged 22, a waiter, for being concerned together in a burglary, Mr Justice McCardie, at the Surrey Assizes, recently, spoke of the possibility of the probation system being abused. Adams, who had seventeen previous convictions, and committed the present offence two days after leaving prison, was sentenced to six years’ penal servitude and Hodge to seven months’ imprisonment in the second division.

Adressing Adams, the Judge said: “The truth of the matter is that leniency for a man who has been a persistent criminal is misplaced. It is merely a concession to an emotional and ignorant public. You may be to a certain extent an epileptic or a mentally defective, and I wish there Was a hon>e to which I could send you. I think you will be best looked after by being sent back to a convict establishment and the public will gain what they ought to receive, and that is a substantial measure of protection from crime.”

Turning to Hodge, the Judge pointed out that only a month ago he was bound over at Glamorgan Assizes, and went on: “I must say that throughout the country, much as I desire to support probation, men- are saying to themselves, ‘We will commit these offences. We might not be detected, but if we are we can rely on a generous bench of magistrates or a merciful Judge to bind us over. If once that feeling becomes prevalent in the community then probation may inflict a serious hurt upon social order.”

Police Constables Elford and Griegs, who arrested the men in High Street, Putney, with the stolen property in their possession, were commended.