DECREASE IN CRIME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19806, 29 November 1927, Page 8

DECREASE IN CRIME.

BETTER PRISON METHODS, NEW SOUTH WALES FIGURES, AMENITIES OF GAOL LIFE. VALUE OF IMPROVED METHODS. [FEOM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] SYDNEY. Nov. 17. The crime in Sydney has been the subject of much discussion lately A judge on country circuit;, who finding that there were no cases listed for hearing, at a populous country town, made some frank remarks about the decrease of crime, was taken to task by clergymen and others for his statement. But the recently-issued report of the New South Wales Prison* Department seems to support his view The report shows that in 1892 the prison inmates numbered 2622. At .June 30 last, despite a very large increase in the popu lation of the State, only 1503 persons were in gaol. " There has been a sub stantial faliing-off in gaol entries," says the Comptroller-General of Prisons, M r , G. Steele, "while, the value of the work performed by the prisoners has increased At no time in my experience have the prisoners been so busy, or their labour so reproductive and interesting." Although so many of its boarders are leaving, the Comptroller-General depicts prison as quite a nice sort of place, where prisoners hold debates, attend lectures, and have their own news sheet. AH trace of prison-feeding, he says, has gone, and prisoners of relalively-good character can do healthy, congenial work planting trees. . They have physical, drill, games, frequent visits from relatives, and a library of 24,000 volumes to draw "rom. The Comptroller-General says that these improved prison methods, with tho growing law-abiding spirit in the community, are themselves responsible for the decreasing number of inmates of gaols. Prisoners, he contends, are being reformed and taught remunerative trades. The straight path is being made much pleasanfcer. The trades. taught include bootmaking, book-binding, bread-making, building, cabinet-making, carpentry, mat making, motor body building and repairing, printing, saddlery, tailoring, tin smithing, and upholstering. Furniture making is being specially undertaken and taught in all the large gaols. A table of statistics embodied in the re port for the number of persons under sen tence during the last 14 years shows that the percentage -of the population undei sentence has decreased practically pro gressivey from .0507 in 1913 to .0250 this year. "It is not suggested that prison statistics are an infallible guide to the moral condition of a community,'" the re port states, " but having regard to the splendidly-organised and efficient work of the Police Department of this State, the prison statistics are at least as reliable an index of anti-social conduct as the) were in previous years. " The remarkable faliing-off of thi prison population is a satisfactory indi cation that there is a comparatively smal and diminishing element in the com munity when the opporttaities for the e.\ ploitation of lawless proclivities are take* into consideration. Since the system c> herding prisoners together ' indiscrimiij ately ceased in 1885, there has been steady decrease in the population of ou gaols. Until then there was a steau increase."