STATE REFORMATORIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21414, 11 February 1933, Page 14

STATE REFORMATORIES

COUNSEL QUESTIONS VALUE DISCUSSION IN COURT The problem of the reformative value of the State institutions conducted for that purpose was raised in the Supreme Court yesterday by Mr.' A. H. Johnstono when defending a prisoner who, although he had a number of convictions, had never had counsel to speak for him before. Mr. Johnstone directly questioned the value of such an institution as W T ereroa, and reiterated his stand when the Crown Prosecutor, Mr. V. R. Meredith, took exception to his remarks. Mr. Johnstone said his client had been committed to Wereroa State Farm at the age of 15. "I trust I am not saying too much," he added, "if I say that little in the way of reformation could be expected from an inmate of that establishment." His. client had later been sent to the Borstal Institute at Invercargill. It might be said that he had later gone wrong in spite of the training in these institutions, but he was inclined, rather, to put forward the view that, the man was a product of these institutions. Mr. Meredith said he must take exception to the suggestion that the institutions in which the man had been placed were to some extent responsible for what had happened. Mr. Johnstone said he did not recede one iota, from what he had said, and if his friend pressed him he should like to say a, good deal more. The associations in these institutions were most, harmful. Mr. Justico Herdman: It is very difficult to know what to do. They must be herded together. Mr. Meredith said it was the influence of the companionships, not of the institutions, that was bad.