A PRISONER’S WORD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19502, 10 June 1925, Page 4

A PRISONER’S WORD.

“AS GOOD AS OTHER MEN’S” A FEW HOURS’ FREEDOM. A prisoner's word of honour is as good as any other man’s. That is the British official view. The estimate is not unconditional, but it stands for all general purposes. Officialdom does not damn a man as untrustworthy solely because he happens to be serving a prison' sentence. This is why a Maidstone man, now serving a sentence in Wormwood Scrubs Prison, was released recently for a few hours to enable him to be present at the funeral of bis child. His record justified trust, and he wa s true to the trust by returning to the prison immediately after the funeral. Major E Goldie Taubman, governor of Wormwood Scrubs Prison, informed an interviewer that if a prisoner’s record does not in itself put him beyond the pale, red tape will not do it. “There is no hard and fast rule,” he said, “ as to the degree in badness beyond which a prisoner forfeits the trust of the authorities. The Home Secretary is the sole judge of the man’s record. If, in his opinion, the man seeking such temporary liberty can be trusted to return be will order his temporary release. “When a convict wants temporary release for such a purpose as the Maidstone man wanted it, he has to make formal application, which is submitted to the Home Secretary, with details of his criminal record. I have known of several cases of temporary release, but I have not heard of any case where the parole has been broken. Personally I see no reason why a prisoner's word should he less trusted than that of anybody else, always provided, of course, that his record does not prove him an incorrigible rogue. “ My excellence of prisoners is that, on the whole, they are very well behaved, certainly rnini better than in the old days, an improvement which I attribute to education. Education may not save a ra-an from making the slip which lands him in gaol, but it is certainly reflected in his outlook while serving his punishment. “We now try to strengthen the character, and so help (he prisoner to be a better man when he goes out than he was when he came in. We - have education classes and lectures, and for the younger men we have a gymnasium. The young men in Morinwood Scrubs to-day are really, physically, a fine lot of fellows. Since the beginning ot March we have effected the change which is part of the prison relorm programme, and Wormwood Scrubs is now used only ins &tat offenders. f