THE CRIMINAL

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 September 1934, Page 2

THE CRIMINAL

PRISON DOCTOR’S REVIEW. Turn the prisons into hospitals. Treat those committed to them as “patients” and regard crime entirely as a disease, with colonies for the “incurables,” where they would live with their wives and families. Those are the recommendations of Dr. Hamblin Smith, the famous prison doctor, who, after 35 vears’ ■work in British gaols at Manchester, Wandsworth, Dartmoor, Stafford, Portland, and Birmingham condemns the penal system in a critical review, “Prisons,” published recently, states the London “Daily Herald.” “Persons who have been convicted of crimes,” he savs, “are popularly supposed to form a special class, sharply marked off from other sections of the population. This is a complete misconception.” He points out that the British prison system was never devised; it has evolved, and “is the inevitable result of social and economic forces operating at various periods. The concep-J tion of what is a crime depends upon, the prevalent opinion of some particu-l lar community at some particular' time.” i

Dr. Smith traces the ideas of punishment back to ecclesiastical discipline, the title “penitentiary” being derived in this way. “Even to-day,” he says, “the frightful results of committing adolescents to prison are quite insufficiently recognised. Boys and occa-j sionally . girls of not much over 16] years of .age are sentenced for quite j trivial offences. A boy’s vanity may: bo excited by being in an institution to which persons convicted of grave offences are committed ... In a few days he becomes as lively as a London sparrow. All deterrent fear of prison has disappeared for ever.”

Dr. Smith attacks prison as “retribution.” “Punishment is inflicted because a crime has been committed. The commission of the crime is the ] ground for tho punishment; we look to < the past rather than the future; we: deal with the offence rather than with :

s the offender. .At the present time the' t retributive theory is out of date. He' -'discusses imprisonment as a ‘deter--I rent.’ Out of 39,000 sentences of imii prisonment in a year 28,000. were im-' ■i posed upon persons who had previous-' ’.'Jy been convicted of offences. f “Of those who return to prison on a ■second sentence, a large percentage' , J continue to return on later occasions, I I land the cliaince of return increases a; . direct proportion to the number of pre-j J vious sentences.” •j Dr. Smith condemns the ineffective-' j ness of the present prison system as a reformative agency. “I would point' j out that the fact that a released man : is not again convicted may be siniplyi due to the lesson of imprisonment i having taught him to be more cunning' in future,” he says. ■ Among the reforms which he proposes, he suggests that: If a Court de- 1 tides that imprisonment is the only way of dealing with a case, .it should i not be allowed to pass summary sen- ■ tence, but should refer the case for I psychological investigation. Better I education, including child guidance 5 and vocational clinics, would eliminate many potential offenders.