PENAL SYSTEM CRITICISED

Taranaki Daily News, 9 August 1930, Page 11

PENAL SYSTEM CRITICISED

‘ABOLISH THE PRISON BOARD’

"SENTIMENTALISM AT ITS WORST.” ITS REMEDY DECLARED SPURIOUS. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Hamilton, August 8. Strong criticism of the penal system was voiced by Mr. F. A. Delamare, president of the Hamilton Howard League, at the annual meeting of the league last evening. The Prisons Board represented sentimentalism at its worst, he said. Its appeal to feelings was based on ignorance, and its remedy was a spurious remedy. The board assumed that conformity to prison regulations represented such protection to society, and the remission of a sentence could be founded on it. ,

“The only real protection society may have if remission is contemplated is a scientific examination of the character and social history of the inmate. “Our prison system does not contain one officer capable of making such an examination,” he added. “We must make our minds up to what we really want. Nothing is easier than to mete out punishment, but the really important matter is the possible contribution- of the offender to society on his release. “Why should punishment be called reformative if there is no pretence of reformative methods. The name Borstal as it exists in New Zealand is a fraudulent misrepresentation. If we hold out our institutions as represeiiting the Borstal idea, we are deceiving the public by a pretence. Those who seek prison reform want in addition abolition or reform of the Prisons Board.”