GAOL CONDITIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22434, 2 June 1936, Page 13

GAOL CONDITIONS

Sir, —The Controller - General of Prisons, in his letter, conveys an impression that those persons interested in the above consist of an irresponsible section of the community only. This impression is far from correct. All thinking persons who know anything of gaol and Borstal conditions in New Zealand realise that we lag far behind in sane and lasting reformative treatment of our delinquents. The facts quoted by Mr. Dallard that two members of the deputation in question had been consistently in and out of prison from 1923 onward, and that a third member had 15 convictions for crimes of violence, would strongly support the argument that life in New Zealand's prisons does not reform. H. Bkntham. Sir, —The argument of the ControllerGeneral of Prisons with regard to the Habitual Criminals Act may be true, as far as it goes, but do riot the particulars furnished by him regarding these and similar cases blazon forth the fact that there must be something radically wrong with the prison system itself P It is regrettable that the Labour Party in the person of the Minister for Justice has already failed to see the fallacy of continuing with the old and discredited system. Some would have us believe criminals are but younger souls who, while they must be held under restraint, must yet bo helped and encouraged in every possible manner to see the error of their ways, and although we may even consider a man a nuisance who continually breaks the law, we still have a duty to him, seeing that it is often his early environment, for which society as a whole is responsible, that starts him on the downward path. Many of us feel, I believe, that the Minister missed a golden opportunity when he failed to give the matter his personal and immediate attention. Still Hoping.