PENAL REFORM

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12424, 19 April 1926, Page 8

PENAL REFORM

IN BRITISH PRISONS WOMEN CARED FOR EXIT THE BROAD ARROW Prison authorities in Great Britain considered that the dole system was largely responsible for the increased number of persons in gaol, states Mrs A. N. Debney, of Sydney, who takes a special interest in penal reform. She had been told that while the system , existed the majority of those who were put in prison would not seek work. While in Britain she visited several prisons, including the old gaol 'in Edinburgh. There she found that the meals were restricted to porridge and milk for breakfast, soup and bread, and thick stew alternately for dinner, and a pint of tea and bread and margarine for tea. There were a few flowers in some of the women’s cells, and an hour’s lesson was held daily in reading, writing and arithmetic. At the Duke street gaol, Glasgow, if the prisoners considered that they had insufficient food they could obtain more. For good behaviour a maximum of four months was allowed off a year for women, and three months for men. Officials at that institution informed her that drink was the cause of 75 per cent, of the crime. Conditions were better at the new prison in Edinburgh, which was still in course of erection. If it were possible for such a building to be beautiful, that one was. From their windows prisoners could see the countryside. There was no system of cutting had seen nothing equal to the French had been done away with. RSAST BEEF AND PUDDING Referring to the slum portion of Edinburgh, in the vicinity of Holyrood ’Castle, once the aristocratic part of the city, Mrs Debney says there were public wash houses for the use of the poor, where on payment of 2d an hour clothes were boiled, and then wrung almost dry. Later they were hung from the windows to dry fully. At Holloway gaol for women, in London, the diet was more extensive than in Scottish prisons, and roast beef and pudding were provided twice a week. To her it seemed that penal reform was needed more in Britain than in Australia, and she had seen nothing equaal to the French .Island system. TERRIBLE FACTS „ Another enthusiast on the subject, said that crime was decreasing all over the world except in America. A feature of present-day crime was the youthfulness of the offender.. An American authority had stated that in ten years the average age of burglars had dropped from 29 to 24 years, robbers 28 to 20 years, and murderers from 32 to 23 years. Three-quarters of the movie “fiends’ were less than 24 years of age, and fully 85 per cent, of the films were full of vice and sex questions. He had no doubt that a large number of the youthful delinquents in Australia were also movie “fiends ” If he were chief secretary he would do away with Coburg gaol, and remove all prisoners to trench Island. The further they were removed from the environment of the city the better it would be for the prisoners and for the community.