TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS

NZ Truth, Issue 137, 1 February 1908, Page 7

TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS

♦ What Life Sentences Mean. . How the Irreclaimable Should be Treated. In Edinburgh recently Lord Guthrie delivered an address to the members of the University of Edinburgh Scots Law Society on "The Treatment of Criminals m Scotland." Mr Thomas Shuw, K.C., M.P. (the Lord Advo-. cate), presided. In the course of a' most interesting address, Lord Guthrie said that experts and amateurs agreed that we were annually expending immense .sums m connection with the treatment of criminals, and getting less than no value for our money. The present system, no doubt, punished m a haphazard way, but /'■.', IT FAILED TO DETER OR TO REFORM ; it was costly to the State ; it injured the dependents of criminals by depriving them of their bread-win-ners ; and as to the criminals themselves, it sent them not less able and willing to live respectably than when they entered. But by neither expert nor amateur was blame attached to prison authorities, Commissioners, governors, doctors, chaplains, or warders. The Prison Commissioners were alive to the evils of the present system, while lpyal to < the duties they were appointed to perform. He could not doubt the evidence they were accumulating, and the views they were annually putting before the country would bring about changes which - . ? 1 WOULD MARK A GREAT ADVANCE " m the interests of the country. In, this great work, one would like to see the Scottish prison authorities put m a position by Parliament and the Treasury to lead the way,"' so that their procedure m Scottish prisons might be as superior to the procedure m English prisons as their procedure m the Scottish Criminal Courts, inferior and supreme, was superior to the procedure south of the Border, (Applause.) What was the system which experts thought effete? It was based primarily on two' principles; punishment and deterrence. The first of these principles was ab 1 andoned m theory) although not m practice. Whether the Deity punished for punishment's sake was a question for theologians. Laymen urged that -such mode of dealing with mortals was not for their fellow-mortals. The other pririciple, that of deterrence, was manifestly founded on common-sense, , and , must always receive effect. Putting aside . THE DEATH SENTENCE, their system of .sentencing prisoners was framed on, the ; footing! of their attaining freedom at a, definite period, m every case reducible by goodconduct during penal servitude to three-fourths. A life sentence differed from a 20 years' sentence only by five years. In practice, 'a lifer was liberated at the end of 20 years, whereas good conduct' reduced a 20 years' sentence to 15. The result was that one prisoner might have had ample deterrent treatment, and might have been completely reformed long before - the end of the sentence. He must, however, remain to the s end, while another prisoner, the end of whose sentence found him totally UNDETERRED AND ENTIRELY UNREFORMED, was allowed to go free with full purpose of heart, m the knowledge of every prison official to resume his old career. Nor was it possible, as things were now, to carry into effective, operation that duty; to reforming and not degrading which all their prison authorities asserted. He rel--ferred both to long sentences and to short. Why should the present system continue ? It was not punishment they wanted ; they wanted only to keep the country safe to live m. For that purpose they needed, first, reformatory establishments for the reclaimabie. In these, whatever the other conditions, deprivation of personal liberty and the \CUTTING OFF OF' ALL FORMS ' OF INDULGENCE, coupled with hard work as a condition of good food, would amply supply the deterrent element. In these, the whole treatment of the prisoner, physical, mental, moral and religious, from the moment he entered, would be directed to fit him to retain the situation which would be found for him on his discharge. Although m strict confinement, his self-respect and individuality would not be crushed out of him. He would be put to an occupation calculated to arouse his interest and develop individuality, and he would be kept at it long enough to inspire skill m it, and he would be stimulated by earnings to be -paid to or for him on discharge. He would have the chance, the first he might ever have had, through education, reading, and moral instruction, to acquire some control over his criminal nature, and ambitions and views of life which might ultimately make a man of him. Obviously these conditions would be such that JUDGES WOULD NOT HESITATE to commit prisoners for sufficient

time to enable the system, those who worked it, and those to whom it was' applied, to hay» a fair chance. Second, they ,wanted places for the permanent detention of irreclaimables. If these lost men and women were kept from 'doing >.arm to the lives and property' of the lieges, he did not see why their condition might not be so ameliorated that judges might not hesitate, as they would do now, to impose an indeterminate sentence, a condition which would not transgress the golden maxim. ALL UNNECESSARY PAIN WAS CRUELTY. Short sentences, sufficient to affix the indelible prison brand, 'but insufficient fco punish, or, deter, or reform, or keep out of harm's way long enough to justify th'e expense, would cease. Sentences long enough and hard enough to deter would continue - under such conditions as would afford time and opportunity to reform. But the subjects of these long sentences would be divided into two classes, which might m some cases become interchangeable— the reclaimabie and the irreclaimable, the casual and the habitual or professional. The reclaim able would receive &. sentence long enough to enable them to be fitted for a fresh start, and a FRESH START AT HOME OR ABROAD would be procured for them by the State or by voluntary agencies. The irreclaimables would be. detained unJess and until they proved that they no longer deserved the name. Lord Guthrie said he was one of those who expected, a high percentage of reform among adult criminals.,. The, scale must always be a sadly diminishing one. The great mass of children m their eighteen Scottish industrial sohools caught m tender years did well. ,He believed much m environment, little m hereditary. Whatever results might be achieved foy that system of prison management, ,the coming of which our Prison Commissioners were doing so much to hasten, it would, at all events, be a system defensible m principle. It would 'have NOTHING TO D,O WITH MERE PUNISHMENT as an end m itself. If it did not reform it would deter. It would increase the safety of life, and property; and, finally, }t would not involve the expenditure of immense sums of moriev m making men and women less fit, physically, mentally! morally, and less willing to live God-fearing, selfrespecting lives. . *.