The Sun THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 1914. THE DIFFICULTIES OF PRISON REFORM.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 65, 23 April 1914, Page 6

The Sun THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 1914. THE DIFFICULTIES OF PRISON REFORM.

When Six; John Findlay,, in a spasm of enthusiasm for prison reform, made provision for indeterminate sentences in the cases of criminals, a great many tjiought .that the problem of the habitual criminar was solved, The indeterminate sentence, better known in the underworld as the " Kathleen Mavourneen,'' is an American invention, and anyone reading some of the literature on the subject might easily be led to form exaggerated ideas of its reformative virtues. When a prisoner is declared to be an •habitual criminal, and is sent to New Plymouth for reformative treatment, in the knowledge that his release depends on his success in convincing the Prisons Board that he has reformed, it does not take him long to become a model prisoner. He gives his keeper no trouble; he performs his allotted tasks cheerfully and industriously, and works the soft side of the Prisons Board for all he is worth. Under the circumstances, what can the Board do but let him out after a decent interval, on a probationary license? . It may be "an absolute farce" in the language of the police sergeant who has no fine theories about prison reform, and no illusions whatever regarding the class of person who comes within the category of an habitual criminal, but if the principle •of the indeterminate sentence is to be tried, habituate must be liberated sooner or later. How else can the curative nature of the treatment be vindicated? Sir \Robert Stout emphasised this very pointedly in an interview at Wellington yesterifay. It would be much simpler, and perhaps a good deal more logical, to lock up the hopeless criminal for life. But Parliament has not yet decided that a man shall be confined to gaol till he dies, because he lacks sufficient moral fibre to preA T ent him from committing petty thefts whenever the temptation comes his way. The Prisons Board can only administer to the best of its ability a law that was devised to give effect to Sir John Findlay's ideas. The Board is devoting a great deal of time and thought to its duties, and it no doubt feels compensated by the fact that all the persons released on probationary licenses do not lapse again into evil ways. A certain amount of reclamation is going on, and that is something to be thankful for.