PRISON REFORM NEEDED IN BRITAIN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17854, 24 May 1926, Page 14

PRISON REFORM NEEDED IN BRITAIN.

GIRLS WHO SHOULD NOT BE SENT TO GAOL. (Special to the “Star.”) LONDON, March 12. The number of receptions into prisons in this country during 1924-25 is shown by the report of the Commissioners of Prisons, issued 3-esterday (Stationery Office, Is 3d), to have been 55,619, compared with 58,216 in the previous year. Of the total 10.55 S were imprisoned as debtors or as the result of civil process. The number of women imprisoned was 227—the lowest on record. The average net cost of each prisoner to the country is £6l 16s 7d per annum. The following points are made in reports from individual prisons: Holloway (Governor) : Some girls were sent to prison who, I have no hesitation in saying, ought never to have been introduced to our prison system for the offences of which they were found guilty. Holloway (Chaplain) : There are a certain number of women who make Holloway their home. This is sufficiently demoralising when the recidivists are middle-aged or old. but it is disastrous in the cases of younger women. . . . Legislation is urgently needed for dealing with such persons in institutions where they could work usefully* and contentedly. Dartmoor: The present-day convict is far better educated than his confrere of oldefi days, but he is softer and more apt to whine over trifles. Assaults are almost unknown, but petitions are becoming a cult. The Commissioners attribute the better behaviour of prisoners and the decrease in crime to a combination of the probation system with the patient efforts of prison officials and voluntary teachers and visitors.