GUILTY PRISONERS

Taranaki Daily News, 2 June 1934, Page 14 (Supplement)

GUILTY PRISONERS

PROBLEM OF AFTER CARE. “That judges, recorders, and magistrates should not have complete independence in their courts in the matter of deciding sentences was the view put forward by Mr. Claud Mullins, the Metropolitan magistrate, when he spoke at a luncheon of the Howard League for Penal Reform in London,” reports the Yorkshire Post. “ ‘Surely, by 1934, we have discovered,” said Mr. Mullins, ‘that the handling of delinquents when found guilty is an entirely different problem from ascertaining their guilt. We cannot go on assuming that the person who is qualified to try a prisoner’s guilt is necessarily able to deal with him after he has been found guilty. “‘Why should not a prison governor, with a full sense of his responsibility, say to me that he thought a sentence was not suitable, and that a boy should be sent to Borstal ? “ ‘This idea of the independence of the Bench ought to; cease at the moment of the verdict. After the verdict the magistrate or judge should be given the maximum amount of help and the maximum amount of advice by those who have had more experience than he.”