IDLENESS AND CRIME.

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18950, 20 May 1933, Page 9

IDLENESS AND CRIME.

INCIDENCE AMONG YOUTH.

PROBATION FOR REFORMATION.

REVISION OF PENAL SYSTEM. Some aspeots of the relationship between crime and unemployment, and the sooial responsibility of the community towards youthful law-break-ers were dealt with by Mr J. A. Brailsford In addressing the annual meeting of the Howard League for Penal Reform, at Auokland. The speaker Issued a strong appeal for support of the League, and went on to analyse the effects of enforoed idleness on the adolescent mind, contending that punishment, as punishment, does nothing to redeem the lives so Injured, ■but tended rather to deform than to reform charaoter. “Opportunity is the dally bread of adolescents,’’ said Mr Brallsford, l lf we deny them opportunity, we produce a crop of feeble, Irresponsible characters just as surely as semistarvation produces a orop of riokety infants. The derelicts who beoome a burden on the community are but a few of the viotims. The greater harm by far is done to the muoh larger numbers who never appear before the oourts or in our institutions. Sensitive characters, who might he among the best In servioe to the community are sometimes the worst sufferers. Some work hard at school confident that they will give some worthy service to the communityonly Co find themselves faoed with a blank wall and the large sign ‘not wanted’ wherever they turn. The wonder is that we have not more lawbreakers at such a time. The few victims of whom we hear are the lawbreakers, not those who learn to idle, to lie abed Reading novels and become unemployable. When we have successfully made them Into unemployables, many people, professing to be good Christians, pour out scornful Judgment upon them." Deorease In Orlme. The leoturer went on to say that fifty years ago, when lawbreakers were being driven mad by terms as long as 18 months of solitary confinement, there was more crime In England than now. But the Improvement might he due in part to education and more prosperity. It might he fairer to make a comparison with the period Just before the war, when education was already general, hut the new and less brutal penal methods had not had time to lake effect. Roy Calvert made this comparison In a recent article. The figures showed a lsr?ge decrease in murders, manslaughters, assaults and the worst sex offences, but a considerable inorease In minor sex offences, In minor thefts and In housebreaking. It was to be expeoted, and It was a faot, that oflmfli against property lnoreased in times of distress, and this clearly accounted for a large proportion of the Increases mentioned. The other outstanding feature was the positive deorease In •crimes of personal violence, despite the Inorease of population. The comparison made was between the figures for 1930 and the average for 1900-1909.

A most oonvinoing statement was made In an editorial in the Howard Journal for 1932 regarding the sudden increase in offences in 1930. It gave facts In support of its contention that the increase was due to “the spectre of poverty and unemployment, the aftermath of war and the creeping paralysis of trade and industry." Again the Journal showed that In one county taken at random from 85 to 90 per cent of the men convicted were out of work at the ■time of the offence. A Scottish committee analysed the cases of 50 boys committed to Borstal, also taken at random: 43 of the 50 were unemployed and of the remaining seven the majority were engaged in street trading. Probation aa a Deterrent. The increasing use of probation In Britain had been blamed by some cf the advocates of harsh penalties for the recent increase in crime. To this the Howard Journal replied: "If the Increasing use of probation had oaused the Increase in crime, there should be most crime where there is most probation. Exactly the reverse is true. London, Middlesex, Warwickshire (including Birmingham), Staffordshire,, are amongst the districts which use probation most freely, and yet their crime rate tends to be on a level with that of many rural districts where little crime is expected. Devon, which has been notoriously baokward in using probation, has a comparatively high crime rate." For years the Howard League In New Zealand had been pleading for a wider use of probation. Again in countering the argument that the increase of crime was due to more humane treatment, Mr Brallsford mentioned the deleterious effects of the war, especially on those who were ohlldren in the war years and whose home-life was broken up. Motors had offered new temptations to youth and the increase In housebreaking was attributed by authorities —and reasonably—to the growth of widespread suburbs where the police oould not possibly maintain strict watoh.

Because prison implied a regime of fear it oould never reform, even though it might be called a reformatory. Prison Treatment Crltlolsed. In prison, food was kept from the Inmates as a punishment, even if it had to bo wasted. For instance, when Mr Braiisford was in Walkerla reformatory a considerable area of excellent rhubarb had been dug Into the ground rather than that the prisoners should enjoy it. Under such conditions stealing came to be regarded as a virtue, and even some of Hie very conscientious men among those Imprisoned as pacifists during the war came to take this view Tho removal of the prisoner from friendly contacts was necessarily harmful and the deprivation of all use of money weakened their Judgment so that many had no sense of values when released after a long term. Solitary confinement tended to have a disastrous effect on a prisoner’s mind. 'i’he worst and most, degrading feature of our prison regime was the indeterminate sentences given for alleged purposes of reform. This was a tragic farce —an axe held constantly over the prisoner's neck by the gaolers. It was not, surprising CCosUnued in next column..)

that men when convicted asked to be sentenced to hard labour rather than reformative detention. They knew that if the sentence was not fixed, a year or two years might be added to their term simply on the strength of an adverse report from the prison officers to the visiting board. Probation and after-care were tho more necessary as agencies of reform, ho added. The Discharged Prisoners’ Aid Society was doing valuable work, but he believed the best influence could he exerted by private people voluntarily assisting ex-prisoners to find their feet in the community . However, the main problem was to rid the country of youth unemployment. "Wo must give youth Its fair opportunity,” concluded Mr Braiisford. “To deprive youth of hope Is to deprive it of the best part of llfo itsplf.”