ERRING YOUTH.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20380, 11 April 1928, Page 9

ERRING YOUTH.

THE HELPING HAND. JUVENILE DELINQUENTS. PROBATION AND AFTER. (Siecial to Daily Times.) CHRISTCHURCH, April 10. Representing the Prisons Department, Mr G. M. Silver addressed the Y.M.G.A. National Convention at Christchurch last night on the subject of probation for juvenile delinquents. After conveying the department’s thanks to the Y.M.G.A. for what that institution had done in making contact with the lads from the Borstal Institute at Invercargill, Mr Silver, speaking of the ex-inmate of Borstal, remarked: — “It has been well said, I No one knows whether he is reformed, for no lad can call • himself a swimmer until bis feet are off the ground.’ The leap from control to liberty would overbalance him, were it not for the oversight and encouragement continued after he has left the institution. It is in this oversight that there is an opportunity for community service, the extension of the helping hand to keep the chin held up until tile swimmer has learned that he can float and need not flounder, thus helping to complete the difficult work of reconstructtion so courageously attempted by the officers of our Borstal Institute. The teaching, training, and kindly influences attempted in the Borstal Institution can be of little avail unless the helping hand is extended to the inmates after release.” The speaker went on to refer to change in public opinion with regard to juvenile delinquents, indicated by the widely-extended use of probation in Europe. Quoting from a recent report described by The Times, as the most notable official publication of recent years dealing with the subject of the treatment of young offenders, h e said; ” There is ho room for controversy as to th main object in veiw, namely, to, restrain the young offender from straying further into criminal habits, and to restore him to normal standards of citizenship ; the lesson that wrong-doing is, followed by unpleasant consequences must be taught, but the court pays more attention to the vital question of their future welfare. Courts, in the administration of justice, have to consider the community as well as the individual, and must pay some regard to the feelings of the average citizen on the subject of the law-breaker. In certain cases these considerations may appear to conflict. Modern theories of punishment have discarded the idea of revenge, but the individual citizen who has suffered, or has seen his friends or relatives suffer, at the hands of an offender, is apt to hold the view that the court should award a just punishment for the wrong done to him and his. He is likely to think, too, that to give such a punishment will be the best way to deter both the offender and others like him from doing similar wrongs in future. If the offender is merely placed on probation, the injured citizen may feel that justice has not been done, and that such a step will weaken the healthy fear of breaking the law which ought to exist in th e mmdg of ail. Ibese are natural feelings, and it would be a mistake to take no account of them. However, there may b'e substance m the criticism if release on probation is merely regarded by the offender as being let off.’ Hie sufferer should be satisfied, and public interest should be safeguarded, bv tnking Cfli*e that pTobntion is inad6 a reality, and by making the offender and the public understand that it is so. Both should know _ that probation is strictly a period of trial, and that if the offender fails he will be deprived of his liberty, and may be deprived of it, too, for a longer period than would have been the case had he been sentenced to imprisonment in the first instance,’ The speaker then dealt with the steps that a probation officer takes when a lad under 21 years of age is remanded for the probation officer’s report, pointing out that probation could be successful only when there was opportunity to adopt definite methods, to gain and hold the confidence of the probationer to re arrange the surroundings where necessary, and to have the co-operation of existing social agencies prepared to accept and to live up to responsibility. Experience in other countries had proved that the necessary close supervision could not be given to each probationer by a probation officer having charge of from 60 to 100 cases. The appointment of more officers might be objected to on the ground of expense, so voluntary social workers were needed to co-operate with the salaried officers in the intensive work that makes probation real. It was a sign of the times, said Mr Silver, that such workers could be found, willing to work side by side with the salaried officers, and the Prisons Department was asking for more of them. VOLUNTARY .WORKERS.

" Part of my work is to assist in the formation of voluntary probation commit* tees, to gather the men of goodwill and good sense who will appreciate the privilege of being given the opportunity of acting as counsellor and friend to the probationer, and so save an individual for th e community. We attempt to secure men representative of the religious denominations so that when this voluntary officer has assisted to meet the material needs of the probationer, and has a real chain to his friendship, lie may be privileged to link him with the church of his choice. It is not only what the individual committeeman can accomplish, but his point of contact with others, the spreading of the plea for assistance to give the probationer another chance to re-establish himself.

’’ As the success of probation work depends very largely on the chances of keeping a lad at work, w e attempt to secure the co-operation of men established in the business community, trusted and respected by their fellow-business men, whose interest in the probationer will guarantee his being given an opportunity to prove what he can do if only given tlie chance. “At the present time we have 140 men of this calibre acting on 22 voluntary probation committees in the cities and towns of this Dominion. In each case the local magistrate has very kindly consented to take the chair of the committee. This co-operation of the magistrates lias been one of the great encouragements of the work. One realises the intense interest the magistrates are toking in thecases that come before them and their Humanitarian attitude towards delinquent youth.” It was too early, concluded Mr Silver, to talk of the results of the scheme, which would take tiro e to develop and years to perfect, and the department suggested that those interested in the problem of guarding young manhood should consider the fact that last year 243 probationers were between 15 and 21 years of age. “ The probation officer is but a passing agent in th e probationer’s life, not a permanent one. He should, therefore, endeavour to put his charges in touch with such permanent, social, and religious agencies as are appropriate to their individual needs, in the hope that these agencies will continue to influence the probationer’s life long after The probationary period has terminated.”