BORSTAL AT WAIKERIA.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 24, 28 December 1925, Page 11

BORSTAL AT WAIKERIA.

MANAGEMENT OF THE FARM

HEALTHY WORK FOR INMATES,

TE AWAMUTU. Dec. 23,

A new arrangement is, to be brought into operation shortly in connection with tho supervision of the Borstal Institution at Waikeria, a few miles from Te Awanuitu. A committee consisting of Messrs F. Quin, G. A. Empson, W. Jeffery, F. J. Gilbert and S. H. Dunkley has been appointed, with Mr Quin as chairman, to act as an advisory visiting committee to cooperate with the superintendent. 'There are at present 90 young men at Waikeria undergoing reformative detention, and they are all being employed in various capacities, principally farming. The farm consists of several thousand acres, and''dairying, stock-raising and cropping are being carried on, while several hundred acres of new country arc being brought into use. Much of the preliminary, work was dono while Waikeria was a reformative prison farm. Under the new arrangement tho youths will carry on, the work providing them with healthful and useful occupations, and at the same time teaching them self control. An official of tho Prisons Department explained that when a young offender is admitted he is placed in the intermediate grade and, if his conduct has been exemplary he is, at the end of three months, placed in the first grade, where he is entitled to certain privileges. From the first he can ultimately be transferred to the special grade. If, however, during Ins period in the intermediate grade he has been guilty of misconduct he is placed in the penal grade, where the treatment is more rigorous. The food varies with tho grades. All tho inmates must attend school to tho sixth standard. Gymnastics are also compulsory.