CRIME ITS TREATMENT, PREVENTION, AND CURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2258, 10 June 1897, Page 54

CRIME ITS TREATMENT, PREVENTION, AND CURE.

At the Alexandra Debating Society the opening address was delivered by the president, Mr Robert Gilkison, who chose as his subject ♦• Crime." After pointing out the importance of a careful study of the treatment and cure of crime, and referring to recent statistics showing the increase of crime in some countries, the lecturer gave a historical survey of the modes in which criminals had been treated by English law 'in the past, and then proceeded to review our New Zealand modes ot creating crime. In pointing oub that instead of a reduction in crime the present tendenoy was in the opposite direction, the lecturer said: — "New Zealand figures show a reduction of from I*2B per 1000 in 1881 to 070 in 1893. 1893, however, showed an increase of crime from 1892, and more convictions in the Supreme Court thau in any year from 1888, and if the 558 persons who have been relsased under ' The First Offenders Act, 1886,' had instead been committed to gaol, tho percentaga above given would have been considerably altered. It is also important to observe the total Dumber of prisoners in the colony on the Ist of January, 1896, was 555, an increase on the figures of 1893 of 55 prisoners. At the present time crime and criminal effences are increasing ia Continental countries very markedly. What has happened elsewhere may happen here, if we do not be very watchful. It is now an admibted fact that cr.me is_ contagious. It is compared as a physical disease which requires most careful and judicious treatment. It is to be prevented or repressed by modes similar to modes of curing the latter. The most efficient method will be to remote the causes (when ascertained), aud in existing subjects to cure if possible, or, if nob, to do all that can be done to quarantine the offender, and prevent the spreading of the disease." Treating of the subject of treatment Mr Gilkiaon said : — The punishments imposed by our law are capital punishment, Hogging, imprisonment (with or without hard labour), and fine 3. Flogging is now almost non-existent, and fines need not be considered in this paper as they apply only in petty offences. In o'.den times punishment by death wss the mo3t common. At common law it was meted out to all convicted of any felony (except petty larceny and mayhem).

[ The excessive severity of tho law, however, was j its own undoing. In the first place juries were 1 slow to couviofe, and secondly when prisoners ! were convioted and sentenced to death, tha authorities in a great rnauy cases did not carry out the sentence, but commuted it. Sic James Slonhen says that in 1598, at Bxefcec sessions, 387 people were tried and only 74 sentenced ; at Lent assizes out of 134- who were tried, only 17 were sentenced to be hftfged. The tarns authority estimates that some 800 persons were hinged each year in England during the period of the close of the sixteenth century. Even until vory recent years the penalty of death remained the penalty of many trifling offences. In 1833 (four years before our present Queen came to the throne) a child nine years of sgo was solemnly tried on ft capital charge before his Majesty's assizes. Ib appeared" the child had found some paint inside au old broken p.me of glass, and by poking * stick through a paloh in the pane he was able to oteal paint; valued at 2d. This baby was convicted and sentenced to death. Tho Ct'own, however, graciously commuted the sent -wee. Ami th*t took place in 1833. Humane- judges, unable to alter the law, yet used every means lo modify its extreme harshness. A story is told of Lord Mansfield, who with a jury was trying a man at the Old Bailey for stealing Irom a dwelling house to the value of 403. bsing a capital offence. The judge, in summing up, told ths jury the article stolen seemed to t>3 a gold trinket, which could not be worth 40s. Tha prosecutor interrupted indignantly: "Under 40s, my lord! Why the fashion alone cost me more than double that snm." Lord Mansfield calmly proceeded : " God forbid, gentlemen, that we should hang a man for fashion's sake." CAPITAL PONISHiKENT. On this subject the lecturer said : I shall not here discuss at length the desirability or otherwise of dispensing altogether with punishment of devsfa. I shall only say when inflicted it is irretrievable ; and if, as sometimes happens, circumstantial evidence which obtained a conviction is afterwards explained away, it is than too late to do Anything to atone for the injustice done to au executed but innocenb man s Ou tha other hand, fcho fear of the gallows is undoubtedly a great deterrent to crime. A coavict in Australia, once writing surrep* tiUously to a^ friend, gave an account of his troubles and impressions. The letter was returned through the dead letter of Roe to the gaol. A couple of sentences in it give a carious msight into the working of his mind. He wrote : " They top a care out hnre for slogging a bloke" — i.c , they hang a man for stri^mg a warder. "That bit of rope, dear Jack, is a great cheok on a man's temper." Although ifc is evident great improvements have been made in the way of treating our criminals, I fed oaere is still great room for further advance. THE OBJECTS OP PUNISHMENT are not to take vengeance on the guilty p^- l y, bat («) to give a warning to the public that tuo laws of the SUte must be observed, and (J) to improve the offender — if possible. The imposicioa of the imprisonment and deprivation of the man's liberty for * given time no doubb iv most oases- act as a sufficient warning. la this country we are happily free from a class of persons who exist in some parts of tha world to whom a prison opens a door oE luxury, and to whom ordinary restraint is nob sufficient deterrent. I speak particularly oE street arabs and starving men and woman, who might find in gaol greater comfort than they would without. I think, happily, New Zealand is as yet free from such misery. As to whfcther the present system of imprisoHment as carried out in this colony does improve the individual, I fear I must say, in most cases, " No." Too often a gaol may be only a ichool for crime. In it meet together all classes of social sinners, from the hardy old reprobate, who has served sentences of all lengths for various crimes, to the first offender, who has— perhaps principally by force of circumstances— found himsolf in prison. This herding together of all clas-e? is a fatal blot on our system as a means of reform. The prisoners ought to be carefully classified, and those who have for the first time become inmates of the gaol nhould nob be permitted - to mix with the gaol birds to whom the words Right and Wrong are really meaningless terms. I think it a crying shame th»6 such banding together of the hitherto innocenb with the worst telong of the country should be permitted, and, still worse, coanpolsorily carried out by direction of the law. This is an evil system, which will make more criminal!, and for which we. as citizans of this colony, are answer&ble. In his report of 189t the inspector of pri'ons asked for better accommodation for the prisoners. Ha says : "To properly carry out a classification system it is imperative that each prisoner should have & separate cell so as to prevent moral contagion and opportunities oE rebellions combination. The separation of criminals from each other lies at the very basis of the best systems, both as a means of reformation and deterrence." At the present time a new gaol is being builb in Danedin. Ib is to be hoped the Government will take care to cwry out what the inspector of prisons has said is necessary. A second reform I would'(on the authority o£ some of tbe best prison experts of the day) suggest is that of abolishing the definite and predetermined sentence — except in the cases of old aud hardened criminals. This system has been tried in several American States, and has proved most successfu l , and was introduced into New York by an act of 1877. Under thab law prisoners cannot receive more than tha maximum term of imprisonment fixed by statute for their offence, but they may be let out on parole by the managers of the reformatory f6r a probitionary period of six months. It practically means the pri»oner is sent to gaol for cure, and when cured is to be discharged. This system has been advocated in England by the Hill Brothers, in Italy, and in Germany. Its introduction into America has proved eminently satisfactory, and I trust before long bo see ib put into practice ia this colony. To carry ib out, however, our gaols would require to be managed on principle and on scientific system, a?, for instance, is carried out at the famous Elmira Reformatory, New York. Another necassary reform i 3 the training of prison warders. Havclock Ellis points oub that just as trained nurses have been found necissary and invaluable for hospital work, so trained warders are required for the prisons. The criminal is a being to understand whom great study and patience and experience are necessary. His thoughts, motives, impulses are all unlike those of ordinary persons. His deceits, concealment?, and his good points (frequently misunderstood) are all peculiar. Children require to be taught by persons carefully trained for the purpose, and just as much do criminals require to be watched and oared for by persons educated to do so. In one respect New Zealand has made a notable advance iv its modes of treatment of the criminal — that is, by the adoption of " The First Offenders Act, 1886." Since that *cb came into force 558 persons have been released under it, of whom only 29 have been rearrested. Tho country has thus been saved the keeping and watchiue of some 529 youDg criminals.

This act recognises some of the principles whioh ' I am contending for in this paper. A farther reform in criminal matters which is absolutely necessary is the separation in industrial schools or reformatories of criminal children from those of the indigent poor. Our present system i 3 a disgrace to civilisation and a disgrace to ourselves. We continue to •« feed the budding rose of boyhood with the drainage of the sewer." Time and again have we seen cases of an honest hard-working labouring man, being removed by death, leaving a widow and children penniless. Some of the children are brought before si magistrate charged with the crime of being destitute persons, and are committed to an Industrial School. There they are forced to consort with unruly and criminal children who for various offences have been sent from the streets and alleys of large towns to the same home. The contamination spreads ; and in the course of a few years where are the innocent little children who, on the death of their father, went to the Industrial School as their only refuge ? The inspector of prisons has nob failed in his duly in pointing out tkis state of things. He has asked for a training ship or some new buildiDgs or schools to enable him to classify the children. And so far our Parliament has turned a deaf ear to " the cry of the children." We are squandering millions and hundreds of thousands of pounds in various questionable ways, and we are neglecting this 'thing which I consider our .plain and manifest duty. Even from the base money point of view if we convert gcod little children into bad ones, how much further expense will this entail on the State Vhile, from the higher moral point, who shall be blameless p One other point of reform I must touch on before closing, that is the necessity of a home for inebriates. There is {.ower given by an acb of Parliament for a judge to commit inebriates to an asylum for a certain period for curative treatment. Fo far no home has been opened, and the clausss referred to are practically a dead letter. Medical and legal men alika admit that at a. certain stage the inebriate should be taken in charge as a patient, and a course of training then scientifically administered will saye the man to himself, his family, and friends. I would therefore urgs that *uch homes are required, and that a Government which really "loves the people" will make provision for their erection and mainteuacce. I have now reviewed shortly the history of the treatment of crime by English law, .and have shown how, until comparatively of late years, . that treatment made no pretence to attempting to reform the wrong-doer ; I have shown how a more humane system has grown up ; I have pointed to tho nece ssity for further reforms — viz :— (1) Classification and separation of prisoners. (2) Introduction of system of indeterminate sentences. (3) Employment of specially trained warders. (4) Separation in industrial schools or training ships of criminal children from those ■who are only poor. (5) Erection of inebriates' homes. I do net claim that my opinions, or any of them, are new or original. lam only repeating and applying principles which tte most competent authorities declare to be the true ones Yfhich should guide in such matters. This colony is yet young, only a baby amongst nations. We, the heirs of all the ages, desire that she may grow up to take a prominent place in the history of the world. Perhup* in no direction will our efforts now ba better rewarded than in that of stamping out aud preventing the future growth of crime. That great advances have yet to be m-.de, that our system is still far from perfect, and that here is a noble field for the expenditure of energy, devotion, philanthropy, and patriotism it has been my desire to show to-night.