SOLUTION NEEDED.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 925, 21 November 1933, Page 6

SOLUTION NEEDED.

Treatment of Criminal Defectives. (“Star” Parliamentary Reporter.) W ELLINGTON, November 21. * The difficulty in dealing with subnormal and other types of offenders who are not completely' normal is discussed in the annual report of the Controller-General of Prisons, Mr B. L. Dallard, which was presented to Parliament to-day. The Controller-General records that twenty-five prison inmates were transferred to mental hospitals either upon certification or for observation* Following the working arrangement with the Mental Hospitals Department, all inmates who showed signs of mental abnormality were examined by a psychiatrist for the purpose of determining the best method of treatment. “ There is a small percentage of inmates whose conduct is such that they are obviously not uormal, but they are not certifiable, though in some cases they can be classed as social defectives,” states the report. “ There is yet no place where such as these can be segregated. The likelihood of a further lapse into crime when released is fairly certain, yet, with a fixed sentence, there is no alternative but to release them/*

In riie opinion of the Controller-Gen-eral, there is r. grave danger in attaching too much emphasis to abnormal conduct and over-weigh ting the significaitce of what is often no more than adolescent instability and likely to be outgrown with discipline and suitable regimen. To suggest morbidity to the criminally inclined is to encourage mental invalidism.