REFORMATORY HOMES

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13723, 13 April 1908, Page 6

REFORMATORY HOMES

OVERCROWDING AT BURNHAM.

[BY tei/egkath. OWN' correspondent.]

Chkistchubch, Saturday. Commenting on Mr. Fowlds' promise of additional buildings at Te Oranga, which will make classification possible, the Press remarks:—Wo cannot forget that in 1906 Mr. Bisnop recommended better classification at Burnham, and that years before that we had had Ministerial promises that this work too should be put in band, yet so far as facilities for classification are concerned Burnham to-day is no better off that it was before the Commission sat, Indeed, we believe it is in this respect, in worse condition than it was then or than it has ever been, for it is badly overcrowded. There are at present in the institution, we understand, 128 or 129 boys, while there is reasonable accommodation for only about 100. Overcrowding would be bad under any circumstances, but we doubt whether it could anywhere be worse than in a reformatory of the nature of Burnham. The conditions now obtaining there must largely nullify all the efforts of the management to promote the reformation of the boys, and though it is understood that plans for making some classification possible have been drawn up the long delay that has already occurred does not make us very hopeful that the work will be put in hand speedily, nor that anything practical will come out of all the fair promisee. Concerning Te Oranga can the Minister not wake up his Departmental officers? The work of reform is to a large extent at a standstill in Burnham, and the blame must rest on whoever is responsible for the grievous delay in carrying out repeated Ministerial promises.