PENAL REFORM

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 314, 11 July 1930, Page 7

PENAL REFORM

CHARACTER BUILDING. LONDON, May 10. “Can prison build character!” asked the Rev. 8. R. G. Murray, former chaplain to Holloway Prison for Women, ad dressing a meeting held by the Howard League for Penal Reform, under the chairmanship of Pethrick Lawrence. The Rev. Mr Murray said he would like to have first offenders, convicted only of minor delinquencies, sent to re mand homes where, under specialised supervision, their peculiar difficulties might be detected and reversed. He would like to have graver offenders dealt with in a similar manner, but in a different place. H e would like to have the larger prisons closed—prisons with those grim exteriors, like Bentonville and Wrlton, which were calculated to terrify the stoutest heart, and he would like to see in their place smaller ones, which should be located in healthy and beautiful country districts, “where one could see the hills or the sea—because surroundings are so infinitely important.’’ The gravest effect of the present penal system, the Rev. Mr Murray explained, was the custom of thinking that abnormal behaviour was achieved by normal people.