WAGES FOR PRISONERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18458, 23 July 1923, Page 9

WAGES FOR PRISONERS.

M PAYMENT TO DEPENDANTS. M ASSISTANCE FOR " INNOCENT. ;';; One of the most important 'developments v- of the New Zealand prisons system which Ijm. has taken place in recent years is the y| payment of wages to prisoners for the supi)i port of , their dependants. Soma inter4'f esting facts in this connection were re- ;[• ■ lated by Mr. C. E. Matthews, ControllerGeneral .of Prisons,, at a , meeting o!t the : c Wellington Justices of the . Peace Association. In bringing the pro- : posal before the , Government, said Mr. ' Matthews, the • ' department ■ "emphasised that in a great many cases it was painfully apparent, that the worst sufferers from a man's misdeeds were the' man's dependants/ usually his wife a*d • iamily. While the man. himself went to ! prison to be comfortably fed and housed, ; with no responsibilities and no sense of reproach among other offenders, the wives and children were often left in .a destitute condition, and had to suffer in other ways. In 1920, the Government therefore ;- decided to pay a small wage of lbs Od ' ' par week to the dependants of such prisonera, rising in the third month to 22s 6d. The cost to the Prisons Department now amounted to about £-5000 per annum. «• While the new system was by no means $ ■' as liberal nor as complete as might be fe. wished, it had been the means of giving I" relief in" numbers of necessitous cases, 1 where formerly the department had no means of giving any relief at all.