FIFTY YEARS AGO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15884, 3 April 1915, Page 5

FIFTY YEARS AGO.

THE PRISON SYSTEM.

REFORM REQUIRED.

(Prom the HEBALD of April 3 1865.)

Punishment is generally supposed to be inflicted for the prevention of crime. In Auckland, however, we reverse the rule and hold it forth as a premium upon villainy. Again and again we have drawn attention to the easy, indolent, comfortable life which our convict prisoners lead. Well fed, well housed, with but little more seclusion and restraint than there is to be met with in a military barracks, can we wonder if men of low character prefer the gaol to tho latter; where, too, they are certain to escape the fatigues and hardships of a campaign? Can we wonder if the man who is too lazy or disinclined to earn his bread by wnvk turns to robbery and crime as a source of income, which is a profitable, and no doubt an interesting, occupation while successful, and offers him when detected the not-very-disagreeable alternative of i few months, or even years, in a. comfortable gaol. There is, in fact, no risk to run in taking up the profession of burglar, footpad, or common thief. It is clearly a case of " heads I win—tails you lose No wonder, then, there is so much business for Judge and jury at each quarterly assize It speaks well for the tone of society here, that our criminal population is not greater, when there are such premiums held out by the authorities for the commission of crime. . , . The expense of keeping our prisoners is a heavy charge upon the State, and it is time we sought to utilise their labour, so as, in some measure at least, to counterbalance this charge. At any rate, we can render prison life less attractive than it is and teach these men that imprisonment is a bodily punishment.