PENAL REFORM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23081, 6 January 1937, Page 11

PENAL REFORM

TO THE EDITOR Sir, —Two letters in Saturday’s issue of your paper deserve more than passing notice, because they go to show that the ideal of any penal system that would be worth while should the “ that prevention is better than cure,” and that educational machinery should be created whereby juvenile delinquents should be dealt with as individuals, and be treated, not punished. I am inclined to think that Great Britain and other centres are far ahead of us in dealing with the matter and in seeming to recognise that servants of the State who have to deal with criminality should, from the highest officials to the lowest, possess some knowledge of the science of psychology. We can never place ourselves on the map in the highest and best sense as long as our prison population is as high as it is. There is a great deal of truth in Miss Baughan’s statement that “ in order to prevent crime in its adults, every wise society will try to understand juvenile offenders,” and her interesting letter convinces me more than ever that a study of the psychology of the child is the only practical way whereby we can approach this vast problem, because the creating of citizens, instead of criminals, is statesmanship of an ennobling kind.—l am, etc. E. Standfield.