Heat Offenders' Probation.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 43, 23 October 1902, Page 18

Heat Offenders' Probation.

" Ont of the most merciful provisions of the criminal laJw ta' that which permits judges and magistrates to grant probation to first offenders. The system has met tliis 'approval -of the wisest judges, and everyday experience proves that only a Very small percentage of those wji© lapse, from Jthe straight , path of rectitude, and are held to probation, return to ways of vice. One reason of this: is that probation is usually associated with a monet£r» penalty;, involving the cost of the articles that may haw been stolen, and' also the costs of the proceedings. H r; aay, a young man is held to probation for a year, anid . ia compelled to pay during that period monthly instalments, and is besides, under the supervision of the police, the effect upon the probationer is likely to be salutary. The Act was intended for young persons, though it leaves entire discretion in the hands of the dburt, and we observe that Judge Williams, of Melbjdurne, has recently commented upon this phase of the (Victprfan law, which was copied from the one in New !^i£^and. The Judge holds that elderly offenders are not entitled ta the benefits pf probation, because their experience should have tautrht them better. But agaiinst this it may be observed that a first offender is still a first .offender, and that an elderly offender is likely to suffer much more mentally from detection than a young Olio. In New Zealand the law has worked excellently, tShe .most recent cape of Jits application being in the case ot-ai • man found gutilty of perjury. Thds is an offence which is usually committed deliberately, and with that premeditation that seems to exclude the perpetrator fjhom the benefit of the charitable supposition that ho slipped. But in the case mentioned no such deliberation ssiema to have existed, and the exercise of the provisions of the Act indicates the wide scope and merciful tendency of the system.