HELP OF PSYCHOLOGY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 159, 7 June 1937, Page 8

HELP OF PSYCHOLOGY

USE IN BRITISH PRISONS. (British Official Wireless. RUGBY, June 5. Prison conditions were discussed in the House of Commons. Sir Samuel Hoare (Home Secretary) said that the chief problem to-day was the young offender and the prevention of recidivism (relapsing into crime). There were two methods which might be advocated. The first was that of making prison discipline so rigid and the conditions so inhuman that you might hope that prisoners after one experience wotild he deterred front running the risk of going back to prison. In actual practice they found, that this method had not succeeded in reducing recidivism. The other method was an attempt at the evocation of lost self-respect and at character-building. Experience along these lines showed that as prison administration had become more humane the number of habitual criminals had been lower. For some little time tho prison administration had taken the direction of trying the experiment of appealing to the prisoners’ better instincts and, most important of all, of seeking to give them interest in things that really mattered in the world. They had adopted the principle of giving privileges which were lost by bad behaviour rather than holding out the indefinite hope of them as a reward for good behaviour. He was able to announce that so far as the Prison Commissioners and the Home Office could judge that experiment had succeeded. The Home Secretary also spoke of the need to modernise many prisons which were antiquated in character, having been built generations ago when the ideas of prison administration were very different. Following the debate the Undersecretary (Mr Geoffrey Lloyd) said he was authorised to state that the Home Office would go very carefully into all tho criticisms and suggestions.. He claimed that there was a very satisfactory decline in the numbers of the prisoners’ population. The help of psychologists. which members advocated, was being increasingly enlisted, particularly in respect or vocational guidance for first offenders. Mr Lloyd amused the House by instancing a boy offender who was reported after mental tests to show outstanding intellectual ability. He wrote an essay in which he revealed an ambition to become Prime Minister. The decision of the experts was that despite this ambition lie ought to make an excellent rating surveyor!