LUXURY IN PRISON

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19675, 7 September 1935, Page 20 (Supplement)

LUXURY IN PRISON

WIRELESS AND PICTURES. SYSTEM OF CALIFORNIA. A-campaign for-the reform of the Californian judicial system is being waged by Judge W. S. Baird, Judge of the Superior Court in that State, who passed through Auckland on the Mariposa, states the New Zealand Herald. He will investigate the Australian system and also prison conditions there. One of the chief shortcomings of the Californian system, he said, was the indeterminate sentence. The Judge merely presided at Court, proceedings, and if the jury returned a verdict of guilty, he sentenced the'accused to prison “for the term prescribed by the law.” This might be defined as from five to 15 years;. The 1 ' ,iictual length of the prisoner's sentence was determined by a Prison Board, which was guided by behaviour while in prison. Three men convicted of stealing between five and ten million dollars, had been released after two years, and two murderers were likely to be set at liberty after serving only five or six years. Judge Baird considers prison conditions in California are altogether too pleasant. Men prisoners had radio, baseball games, band contests, and pictures, while women’s prisons were most luxurious. Each prisoner had a private room, thermostatically heated. Such conditions, and the indeterminate sentence system, were in his opinion misplaced humanitarianism. While they might have a reforming effect in some cases, they failed just as often, and did not act as a strong enough deterrent.