PRISON CONDITIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25674, 24 October 1944, Page 6

PRISON CONDITIONS

REFORM URGED IN BRITAIN REBUILDING OF CHARACTER " Britain cannot afford to wait too long for prison reform,” writes Mr George Muff, M.P., in a London journal. “ We want new prisons with plenty of space for farm work and other activities. I don’t want a prison like San Quentin in California. There were over 6000 prisoners in there when I visited it.

“I like the idea of men eating together in a large hall. We must do the same. Segregate a man to solitude and he will not improve in character. Encourage a man to be a social being in a normal way over a meal. I hope this will be done in all our new prisons, and also in some of our older ones, as a step towards transforming the anti-social being into one who can be assimilated into decent society. ‘ If we are to have prisons, let us have more classification. Keep a few for the old lags who return to their guest-houses with the regularity of a recurring decimal, but the others must be remedial and positive in rebuilding character.

“Let the Home Office get busy—now. Start with the young prisoner and give him something alive to look after; a plant, a cabbage, a tomato—yes, and rabbits and pigs. We want carefully-chosen staffs of instructors. In short, give the average man a hobby even in prison, and there is a good chance he will never return there.”