SECLUSION IN PRISON

Southland Times, Issue 20831, 20 July 1929, Page 19

SECLUSION IN PRISON

PROBLEM OF SEGREGATION.

TWO OPPOSITE OPINIONS.

London, June 23. Should hardened criminals be permanently segregated? The problem which has for long exercised the minds of criminologists and sociologists has been revived as the result of a letter written to the Times by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the well-known author and spiritual-

Ifit Sir Arthur thinks that they should be, but Commissioner David Lamb, the famous social secretary of _ the Salvation Army, takes the opposite view, on the ground that permanent segregation suggests abandoning forgiveness “until seventy times seven. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle advocated permanent segregation because some criminals patently cannot be reclaimed. He mentioned two recent cases, in ■which young men who had spent eight or nine years almost entirely in prison told the Judge that they intended only to go on as before. Such persons resembled lunatics, and should be segregated, not only for their own welfare, but because they contaminated others. “The world,” he said, “has no use for them. They are enemies of society, and the true method of guarding ourselves is to eliminate them altogether.” Sir Arthur suggested a special sort of prison, without unduly hard labour—more like the prisons for criminal lunatics. “Since liberty has been abused, liberty should forever be taken away,” he contended. Commissioner Lamb says that he read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s proposal with surprise and regret. He was surprised to find that Sir Arthur ignores the value and power of spiritual influence, and he is regretful because Sir Arthur suggests abandoning forgiveness "until seventy times seven.”

The Salvatiqn Army, added the commissioner, continues through the world to profess simple faith in the reclamation of the vilest sinner. General William Booth, the Salvation Army’s founder, was willing to try indeterminate sentences, “provided he was entrusted with the power of determining them.”