COUNCIL OF WOMEN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22404, 28 April 1936, Page 3

COUNCIL OF WOMEN

BORSTAL INSTITUTIONS SOME SUGGESTED REFORMS "Training both in character and industry is the essential feature of the Borstal system, and unless this can be put into effect and show results then the system is unjustified," stated Mrs. A. M. Hutchinson, 111 presenting a report on the Borstal system at a meeting of the Auckland branch of the National Council of Women last night. The president. Miss B. Carnachan, presided. Mrs. Hutchinson was convener of a sub-committee set up by the council to study the Borstal system as it is operated in New Zealand. As a result of their investigations the committee had many recommendations to make for improvements to the New Zealand Borstal system, among which was one to the effect that Borstal institutions should be removed from Prisons Department control and that no prison building or part of a prison building should be used as a Borstal institution. It was considered desirable that trades and occupations should be taught with modern and up-to-date appliances by qualified instructors, with a view to a means of livelihood on release. It was further desired that care should be taken to prevent the mingling of Borstal inmates with adult criminals. The sub-committee desired that discipline by means of solitary confinement should be abolished. It was desired that mental deficients should be lodged elsewhere than at a Borstal institution, while recommendations were also made with regard to release on licence and after care of Borstal inmates. It was decided that a special meeting should be held early in May thoroughly to discuss the various points raised in the report before the delegates referred the report to their various societies. Work Done by Prisoners A report was presented by Mrs. A. M. Hutchinson, convener of a sub-com-mittee set up to go into the matter of payments to dependants of men in prison, as the result of a remit from the Howard League for Penal Reform. Jt was stated in the report that 110 pay was credited for work done by a prisoner until the expiration of the third month of his sentence, and then his earnings might he from 16s to 22s a week. A portion or all of this might be paid to dependants 011 their application. There were well over 1000 cases in New Zealand in a year of prisoners serving short sentences of over one week and less than three months, and as these men received no pay at all for work done, their dependants were left penniless and a charge on charity until the men were released. "If some scheme for the payment of sustenance to dependant families of prisoners could be implemented, it would remove a burden of humiliation and hardship which at present falls on those who have done nothing to deserve it, and whose support at present is a charge on local relief organisations," the report concluded. The remit, which asked that the attention of the Minister of Justice should be drawn to the necessity for a standard amount of sustenance being paid to a prisoner from the date of conviction, was carried. Liquor lor Young Folk A remit from the Rotorua Women's Club asked that the Government should be urged to introduce new legislation and to perfect existing legislation making it ft penal offenco for anyone to supply liquor to young people under 20. It also asked that where a girl had been found intoxicated and where it had been proved that a certain person had supplied the liquor, both their names should be published as a deterrent. This remit was passed. From the Northcote Women's Progressive League came a remit pointing out the necessity of asking the Minister of Justice to appoint women police as soon as possible and, failing that, to appoint women patrols. The council decided to support that portion of the remit which asked for women police and it was agreed that the Minister of Justice should be immediately approached.