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1946 NEW ZEALAND

OFFENDERS PROBATION UNDER OFFENDERS PROBATION ACT, 1920, AND CRIMES AMENDMENT ACT, 1910 (REPORT ON OPERATION OF), FOR THE YEAR 1945

Presented to botJt Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency

The Hon. the Minister op Justice to His Excellency the Governor-General. Sir,- Wellington, 29th August, 1946 I have the honour to submit to Your Excellency the report of the Chief Probation Officer on the operations of the Offenders Probation Act for the' year ended 31st December, 1945. I have, &c, F. Jones, for Minister of Justice.

The Chtep Probation Officer to the Hon. the Minister op Justice. Sir I have the honour to present the annual report under the Offenders Probation Act and Crimes Amendment Act for the year ended 31st December, 1945. During the war years, on account of the need for economy of paper, the report on the operations of the probation system has been confined to a brief annexure to the Prisons report. This year it has been decided to revert to the practice of publishing a separate report dealing with the administration of the Offenders Probation Act and the parole system under the Crimes Amendment Act, 1910, and the Prevention of Crime Act, 1924. I append hereto a synopsis of each of the reports furnished by the principal District Probation Officers. These reports all show an encouraging response to the opportunities afforded under the probation system. The number of persons convicted for breaches of conditions of their probationary licenses was 212, or slightly less than 9 per cent, of the total dealt with during the year. This is below the average percentage of defaulters over a number of years. The statistics appended to this report show that the number of persons admitted to probation during 1945 was 972, which number is slightly in excess of the average for the previous five years. Probation is extended to persons of all ages, but in practice it is more generally applied to young offenders. It is interesting to note that 325, or slightly more than one-third of the number admitted to probation during last year, had not attained their twentieth birthday ; 399, or 45 per cent, of the new cases admitted, were between seventeen and twenty-one years ; and 79 per cent, were under thirty years of age. When first enacted, probation was applied only to first offenders and a large number of the more venial offences were excluded from its operation, but now-a-days the Courts have more regard for the interests of the offender than for the actual type of offence, and probation has been extended to all offences punishable by imprisonment.