PENAL SYSTEM
NEED FOR OVERHAUL
EMPHASIS IN RECENT CASE PA WELLINGTON, Oct. 14. “The reply of the Minister of Justice to the recent Parliamentary question on the treatment of a delinquent who had been a murderer and who had committed several offences against women lends force to the oft-repeated assertion that a. major overhaul of New Zealand’s penal system is long overdue,” says a statement issued by the Howard League for Penal Reform. “ The league exists principally to urge scientific means of preventing crime and treating delinquency. Since it is clear that this man is a victim of a recurrent compulsive condition and unable to help himself, it is out T rageous to common sense that nothing should be done either towards investigating his case with a view to a cure or towards proving him incurable and providing the permanent protection to which society, would be entitled in such a case. . . j „ “Any degree of punishment in the accepted sense is utterly useless in such cases. The proper provision would be that it should be mandatory for the accused to be placed in the hands of a treatment board for thorough diagnosis and appropriate treatment. The problem is not a rare one. The particular case referred to has attracted attention in Parliament only by the fortuitous circumstance that the offender’s record includes a murder."
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT19491015.2.68
Bibliographic details
Otago Daily Times, Issue 27212, 15 October 1949, Page 6
Word Count
224PENAL SYSTEM Otago Daily Times, Issue 27212, 15 October 1949, Page 6
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