NEW ZEALAND PRISONS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 233, 14 September 1922, Page 7

NEW ZEALAND PRISONS.

INMATES’ USEFUL LABOUR. REVENUE MOUNTING UPto “Tribune.”) Wellington, Sept. 13. Steady increases have of late years been made in the revenue received by the Prisons Department. Cash receipts and credits have jumped from £5,451, m 1912, to £49,866 for the. financial year 1921-22. and these actual cash receipts, however, do not by anv means cover the full labour value of the work of prisoners during tne past financial yeai. A large amount of work is carried out for which the Prisons Department receives no payment whatever, but expenditure of labour in various channels has the effect either of developing lands or other State assets, 1 or of saving expenditure that must otherwise be incurred. Under these ! headings comes prison labour employed on roads, buildings, reclamation, wall building and other public works, for which last year there was value of £21,120. To. this has to be added the ,T alue of prison labour employed in prison works and industries, such as bootmaking, tailoring, gardening, farming, and domestic employment, which last year totalled £24.628. The total value of prison labour for the financial year was, therefore, £95.614. against a < y ross expenditure of £129.411. The above figures are contained in the annual report of the Prisons Department, presented to the Rouse of Representatives yesterday afternoon. GREATLY IMPROVED SYSTEM. MATERIAL GAIN TO COUNTRY. Comparing last and present systems, the report comments: While the foregoing figures demonstrate clearly the material gam to the country by the adoption of a policy followed in recent year, and the improved moral effect on the individual prisoners compared with that under the former system still foilowed in some of the older countries, is incalcuable. OLD SYSTEM SOUL DESTROYING. When our prisons were simply places of safe custody where there was little or no work of interesting, useful or remunerative character, there was little hope for anything but deterioration of the prisoner, mentally and morally, and sometimes physically, and upon his discharge tho city dweller invariably returned to his former environment in the city, with diminishing capacity for competition with his fel-

lows in the outside world, and an increased tendency towards crime. CHARACTER AND SELF RELIANCE Under tho present conditions every man whose offence or whose general conduct warrant it, is either drafted to one of our country institutions or is suitably employed at useful and remunerative work of some kind. The result is shown by the fact that even some of the many-times-convicted prisoners remain in occupations which they had been engaged while in prison. There are still the incorrigible class who cannot keep out of prison, but this class is rapidly diminishing in number. Every able-bodied map now learns the gospel of hard work, and under the honours system that is very generally applied on our farms and works, he also learns self-reliance and self-respect. For those who are illiterate we have evening classes, where educational facilities are available, while a certain amount of recreation is also provided as a means to the desired end—prevention of mental and moral deterioration.