Our Prison System.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5484, 27 May 1889, Page 3

Our Prison System.

Mr John Gale,| who, after 38 years prison experiencs^n Victoria, has just resigned the position of Governor of Pentridge penal establishment, was interviewed in Chriatchurch while^jon his way to England. He said that gaols were positively valueless for reformatory purposes. This effect he attributed to the want of classification and to the hereditary character of criminals. He was also emphatic in his condemnation of mixing the children of virtuous and vicioiiß parents in our reformatories, Such systems made these institutions nurseries of crime. The worafc prisoners ever under his control at Pentridge were those educated at reformatories. It was a great mistake, in his opinion, to march prisoners through the pub-

lie streots,as ho saw wasdone in Lyttelton. That familiarised persons and crime, and led the criminally disposed to think that the gaol was not such a bad place after all. The practice which prevailed in this colony of trying prisoners in public for offences committed agpinst gaol regulations waa a direct encouragement to insubordination. In Australia, thelarrikins were taking the place of the old prisoners, and were even more than they. Tho chief cause of crime was that it was hereditary, but he thought the political system in the colonies tended to encourage it. The first Offenders Act was a good one, but should be exercised wfth greater discretion.