PRISON FIGURES
Sir. —J note with pleasure the letters of "Overseas" and of "Cygnet." May L briefly stress the fact that our high prison population average does not connote a high rate of crime, but only a high rate of imprisonment. We imprison too freely for minor offences, and we also imprison, for terms that are too long (compared with the practice in Kugland, at any rate); and this over-punishment is costly to the taxpayer, and also keeps delinquents in bad company, which does them and us no good. So far as our penal system is concerned, we could really check much early inclination to crime if our Children's Courts were as well equipped as those of England with scientific as well as social workers. .Nothing would be a better preventive of crime than a better understanding of the child who is handicapped, whether bv nature or circumstance. B. E. B.u'cjtian. Akaroa.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19370107.2.157.3
Bibliographic details
New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22620, 7 January 1937, Page 13
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152PRISON FIGURES New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22620, 7 January 1937, Page 13
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