Criminal Reform

Northern Advocate, 18 February 1911, Page 6

Criminal Reform

THE TOKANUI ESTABLISH-

MENT.

"The Government are pushing on with the Tokanui reformatory," said the Hon. Dr. Find lay recently. The institution, which is near Te Awamutu, is the out-come of the new criminal reform adopted in New Zealand and full details of it were submitted to Parliament last session. The preparation of the place could not be rushed, added the Attorney-General, because cartage and road formation were difiicult undertakings. As much expedition as was reasonably good, however, was being shown, and it was hoped the place would be in full swing this year. "As the judges, lam glad to see, 'are freely applying , indeterminate sentences," Dr. Findlay continued, "the first result will be an increase in the number of prisoners in our gaols and reformatories. That will further nenecessitate an extension of the farm, and probably an extension also of the tree-planting stations. I have reason to believe, however, that the application of the indeterminate sentence is also acting as a deterrent in' itself. Figures I gave the other day in regard to the numbers in the gaols at present, as compared with those of the same periods in previous years, can, I think, be best accounted for on that ground." It was found, for instance, in the States in America, where the same principle was applied, that the criminals left those States.