THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1902. INDETERMINATE SENTENCES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12147, 18 December 1902, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1902. INDETERMINATE SENTENCES.

In sentencing a convicted prisoner at the Supreme Court yesterday Mr. Justice Conolly stated that he had no doubt that the man was a professed house-breaker and robber. His Honor further expressed the opinion that the prisoner might have been concerned in the recent robberies, and imposed sentences, equal to five years' hard labour in all, upon a series of charges to which " guilty" had been pleaded. We have no intention or desire to criticise in any way the punishment inflicted, which most of our readers will agree united mercy with justice. But the occasion is opportune to call attention to the whole modern system of regulating punishments for offences committed against society. At present, as our judges are the first to tell us, the system is very haphazard and generally unscientific. We have made an attempt in the probation procedure to save first offenders from what is universally regarded as the demoralising effect of imprisonment, but we are still altogether at sea in our treatment of criminals who do not come under the beneficial provisions of the Probation Act. While there are admittedly three distinct classes of law-breakers —the occasional, the habitual and the professional—it is impossible, under our system, to deal with them scientifically. It is true that humane and intelligent judges, 'abandoning the old moral arrogance which once made the Law merciless, endeavour, as far as lies in their power, to make the punishment fit no* only the crime, but the character of the criminal. But their power practically ceases when the convict leaves the dock for the prison. And it is true that 'humane and intelligent prison authorities, similarly in-

fluenced by that greater modesty of self-righteousness which marks our analytical generation, equally endeavour, 'as: far as lies in : their power, to keep alive in the erring that sense of manliness which abject subordination over imperils But to gaolers as to judges our cast-iron penal system allows exceedingly little^ play for reformative work. .It sweeps into, one common doom every ; individual ,who : finds the 'prison-doors close behind him as the penalty for his violation of human law. It neither saves for society those who might be made good and loyal citizens by a common-sense, not to say scientific, method, noi protects society from those who are so . frequently freed before they -have shown any wish to lead an honest and law-abiding life. The necessity for penological reform, is by no means a colonial one, or even a national one. It is international. The uneasiness recently felt by citizens of Auckland at the knowledge that their homes and business places are being prowled around by professional burglars, whose aim in life is to rob and plunder, is common throughout the civilised world. The genesis of the criminal, the growth of a criminal class, the state of guerilla warfare between the organised forces of Law and Order and the recognised members of irregular bands of plunderers and robbers, are much the same in New; Zealand as in the United Kingdom and in the United States. We may therefore learn much from the reforms being attempted in other countries, most noticeable among which reforms is that known in America as "the indeterminate sentence." This system is a development of the monumental experiment which, has ; made the Elmira Reformatory, of New York State, the most -famous of civilised prisons. Undev it the prison doors are only opened to a convict after he has given the prison authorities reason to think that his liberty will not be injurious to the public safety. In other words, the crim ; is treated as an insane person is treated. As an insane person must show reasonable probability of sanity before he is permitted to live among the sane so a law-breaker must show reasonable probability of law-abidingness before he is restored to life v among the law-abiding. It goes without saying that such a method requires a complete reorganisation of our' present penal system, but that it ib possible to administer it with a fair degree of success is shown by its having already been adopted by six of the leading and largest i American States—New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio and Illinois—and by its having been very favourably referred to by the Prison Commissioners of the United Kingdom. Criminalogical experts assert that it will speedily be the general law of all Anglo-Saxon America, and the report of the Prisons Board indicates that in a modified form it may ; not ■ unlikely be adopted by the United Kingdom itself. It is therefore sufficiently within practical politics to be worthy of ■ our colonial consideration, both on behalf of the law-abiding community and on behalf of those whose feet have strayed or may stray into the path of crime.

The proposal of the British Prison Commissioners is that for all youthful or unhardened. offenders the nominal sentence should be the maximum penalty now set by the law, and that release; should be granted by the Crown, upon the recommendation of the prison authorities, immediately it is apparent that a convict has become habituated to regular : habits of work and accustomed to j self discipline. Hardened professional offenders; should remain incarcerated until they similarly exhibit signs of moral regeneration. It will be at once perceived that under this conception of imprisonment, the punishment idea almost disappears. It is indeed the practically unanimous opiniop of British, as well :as of American and Continental judges, that prison as punishment utterly fails to reform and largely fails to prevent. It is generally held .'.'to ■be as unscientific to deal harshly and severely with offenders against the law as with the insane. ; The range of prison life is wide, covering the prisoner whose offence was literally a moral accident and the prisoner whose character impels him to ignore completely the rights of others and to evade ' every ; social barrier that debars : . him from vicious selfindulgence. It is claimed that the indeterminate sentence can and does sift out these widely divergent classes, and that by its intelligent and patient application the .sources of criminality can be ultimately so dried up as to remove the present perpetual peril to society. The highest of British authorities has stated that a few hundred v professional criminals, all known to the police as living by lawlessness, constitute the lawless element -which disturbs;the slumbers of forty million people at Home. The indeterminate sentence would gradually concentrate these burglars, forgers, pickpockets,' confidence men and so forth, into prison-asylums, where a humane restraint would be the chief ill they would suffer. "While restoring the repentant -to the enjoyment of law-abiding liberty it would tend to eliminate the moral infection by which the weak and thoughtless are so often persuaded'to sin. It would inaugurate a classing of, the criminal character with the insanity to which it is akin, and, without brutality, would try to protect society from injury by the criminal as it is now protected from injury; by the sufferer from smallpox.