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Star (Christchurch), Issue 16470, 5 July 1921, Page 6

At the meeting of the Theosophical Society on Sunday evening. Miss B. E. Baughan delivered an address on “ The Better Treatment of Our Criminals ” Those in control of prisons in this country, she said, were coming to realise that in very many cases mental treatment was needed, and it was to be hoped that the methods of the psychoanalyst would be applied here as was already being done in other countries. Education of prison inmates was necessary to awaken the intellect in the right direction, and to train the desire naturea, and it was a matter of interest that this was being done in several of our New Zealand prisons. Art and music had a great uplifting influence, and could reach some natures otherwise inaccessible. We needed developers rather than watch dogs for warders, and the help of spiritually minded men and women was of the greatest use in training a criminal to be a bettor citizen. Miss Baughan, who has had some experience in prison work, gave examples showing the existence of unsuspected good which required to bo emphasised rather than the evil side.