A NEW DEPARTURE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1300, 28 July 1886, Page 3

A NEW DEPARTURE.

[From the .Mew?.] The present Minister for Justice is to be credited with an earnest desire to effect desirable relorms in the civil and criminal procedure, and, although so far the fates seem to have been against him and he has not been able to place on the statute book either the Criminal Code nor the Magistrates’ Court Bill, it appears probable that he will succeed in obtaining the passing, this session of at least one measure, which is a very distinct advance in the direction of reform. We refer to the First Offenders Probation Bill, which was passed by the House of Representatives and is now undergoing the ordeal of the Legislative Council, This Bill, which is, like most such innovations, founded, we believe, on American precedent, recognises the fact that not all who offend for the first time are of necessity of the criminal type, and affords a locus poeniientiae for the erring, and the opportunity of recovering their footing without having the brand the criminal placed upon them. Instead of condemning the first offender equally with the hardened gaol-bird to the society and treatment of the latter, power is given to judges and magistntes to record a conviction and thereupon to allow the prisoner to go at large upon probation, subject to the survellance of probation officers. These probation officers are to be appointed by the Governor, and it is 1 to be their duty (i) to enquire carefully into the character and offence of every person arrested for any first offence, for the purpose of ascertaining whether the accused may reasonably be expected ro reform without imprisonment, (2) to attend the sittings of all courts in their respective districts where first offenders are to be tried, (3) to recommend to the court the placing on probation of first offenders, and (4) to keep a full record of the results of their investigations. It is to be the special duty of every probation officer, if satisfied upon investigation that the best interests of the public and of the offender would be subserved by placing the latter upon probation, to recommend the Court accordugly, and power is given to the Court to carry out this recommendation and to place the offender upon probation for such time as it shall think fit. Offenders enlarged upon probation are required to report themselves at fixed periods to the probation officer of the district, whom they are to keep informed as to their addresses, and any change of residence to another district is to be notified to the probation officer of that district. They are further required to get their living by honest and regular employment, the nature of which must be specified to and approved by the probation officer, and upon the due and satisfactory fulfilment of all the conditions of their release, probationers are at the expiry of the period of probation, to be deemed to be discharged as if they had served a sentence. It is heartily to be hoped that: this humane and beneficent measure, which might i well be entitled “ A Bill to prevent the . manufacture of a criminal class,” will • become law this session, and if Mr Tole 1 only achieve this one great result dur- > ing his term of office he will for all time 1 take rank in the fore front of modern ’ 1 (aw reformers and philanthropists.