PRISON MANAGEMENT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVI, Issue 11050, 31 August 1896, Page 3

PRISON MANAGEMENT.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —I see by a report in the Lyttelton Times that considerable discussion took nlace in the House of Representatives as to the cost of the Hokitika prison. I was pleased in reading the report of the Inspector of Prisons, in which he said, amongst- other things, that the prisons of New Zealand were “ clean and well-kept establishments,” with “ creditable discipline ” and “ efficient and economical ” management. After the disclosures of the Hokitika prison, I shall, in common with many others, be very slow to take these official reports as representing the true state of affairs ; in fact, they appear to be the reverse. In Hokitika prison there are six paid officials, including the surgeon and matron (the latter, I presume, the gaoler’s wife), at a cost of £BOO a year in salaries alone, and an average of six prisoners, which means that often the prisoners are less in number than the Government officials. It would be interesting to know know how many of this average six have been brought from other d stricts to keep up the semblance of an average. Now, after all the talk in the

House of. Representatives, what was the assurance given by the Premier ? That “he would see that Hokitika prison shall he put on a footing with other prisons ” which, in plain language, means, to those who knov/ the way of the Government service, that a number of prisoners shall be transferred (at the expense of the taxpayer) from other prisons to keep the average above the number of paid officials in this much-favoured Hokitika prison. We are constantly hearing of applications to tho Government for new roads and bridges, and the invariable reply is, “No funds,” and yet the amount of money apparently squandered in the Prisons Department is great, notwithstanding tbo Inspector's report that the department is managed with “ economy.” Much has been said in the daily papers about the need for reform iu tho police force, but I think if there are any more of the smaller prisons in New Zealand managed as in Hokitika, there is ample room for reform in the management and administration of affairs in the Prisons Department, so that when an annual report is made cerlifying to “efficiency and economy,’ we shall have some faith in its reliability.—l am. Ac., PRO BONO PUBLICO.