The Ohinemuri Gazette. WEDNESDAY, DEC. 7, 1910. PRISON REFORM.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXI, Issue 2728, 7 December 1910, Page 2

The Ohinemuri Gazette. WEDNESDAY, DEC. 7, 1910. PRISON REFORM.

In connection with recent New Zealand legislation in reference to prison reform, what is being done in America is of special interest. For years the stringent rules of the British prisons have been regarded in America as unnecessarily harsh and brutal. A comparison between the systems of England and America shows that the latter has been of the greater benefit, morally and financially. In consequence of the sweeping reforms in American prison administration and the kindly treatment of convicts there, it is estimated that from 60 to 75 per cent of American criminals lead law-abiding lives after their release. The percentage is constantly increasing, and the belief is

expressed by prison reform associations, which are scattered throughout the United States, that the day is not far distant when the habitual criminal will be a rarity. The prison reform movement is spreading everywhere, thus reassuring State legislatures which changed the laws governing penal institutions for the purpose ot developing belf-respect in prisoners by teaching them to become useful members of society, that the change is a great success. It has resulted in the establishment of reformatories where young convicts, usually below the age of 31, are sent after their first conviction, instead of being incarcerated in convict prisons of the usual type. The convicts in these reformatories are given

a thorough education, and are taught some useful trade. They are released after showing evidence of true reform. They do not have to bear the stigma through life of having been convicts. Probably no more than 15 per cent of reformatory prisoners lapse into crime after their discharge. One inno-

vation in American penal institutions is the committal of prisoners for mdeter-

minate sentences, the judge usually

imposing maximum and minimum sentences. A Board of Pardons decides when the prisoner shall be released. If his conduct is good and he shows real contrition he is released at the end of the minimum sentence, which may be only a few months; while if he is a hardened criminal without evidence ot re-

formation he serves the maximum sen-

tence, which may be a long term of years. It is now being urged that judges should sentence a prisoner without fixing any term, thus allowing the Board of Pardons to discharge the prisoner whenever convinced that he has

reformed, or to keep him in confinement indefinitely if he is an habitual criminal.

In some institutions the inmates are allowed to publish a prison newspaper. The best number ot these journals is the Star of Hope, published in the New York State convict prison. The establishment of Children's Courts is considered to be one ol the greatest triumphs of the prison reform movement. __-