Improving The Penal System

Press, Volume C, Issue 29500, 29 April 1961, Page 10

Improving The Penal System

Crusaders for penal reform in New Zealand have been heartened by two developments. each intended to reduce crime among young persons. Last month the Minister of Justice (Mr Hanan) announced the establishment at Waikeria of a detention centre to accommodate a limited number of youths: and recently “ The Press ” reported the revival of a scheme to prepare Borstal inmates at special hostels for their return to the community. Some years have elapsed since both developments were first suggested: but the alarming trends of youthful delinquency have increased tremendously the need for such initiatives. If public support had been greater and public prejudices less powerful, neither project would have been delayed so long. Even now only tentative beginnings are envisaged. However. the Justice Department has probably learnt from bitter experience the dangers of hasty planning and faulty public relations. Its campaign for a more enlightened attitude, based on scientific and economic realities, towards the rehabilitation of offenders is far from won. Unless the present Government is firmer than its Labour predecessor in supporting the department’s objectives, modem penology in New Zealand cannot achieve what it should. It is hard for the average decent citizen to realise that offenders against the law are part of the community just as inextricably as he is himself. The prospects of reforming a criminal are immeasurably enhanced if the process can be accomplished as far as practicable within the ordinary framework of the community in which he may ultimately be a useful member, and which must accept and absorb him when he shows readiness to obey the law. In modern penology, with its bias towards redemption rather than retribution, this fact is fundamental to any

scientific attack on crime. • Every country has its irredeemable criminals, to be segregated securely; ,|>ut

it is inhumanitarian and foolish to neglect opportunities of reforming young persons. Penologists recognise that the return of a prisoner, particularly a young one, to the community may create enormous difficulties and may even renew the impetus to crime. Two years ago, with the support of judges, magistrates, lawyers, and social workers, the Government announced the purchase of an Auckland property as a pre-release hostel for selected Borstal inmates. There was an immediate outcry against the opening of the hostel in a residential area; and a week later the Government abandoned the project. The Auckland property may have been an unfortunate choice because of its proximity to two church hostels for girls, a Works Ministry hostel, and a school. Certainly the Justice Department will be anxious to avoid in Invercargill the mistakes that contributed to the failure of its Auckland scheme. What is most encouraging, however, is the department’s refusal to be abashed by the community's reluctance to play a justifiable role in crime prevention and personal rehabilitation. The need and functions of a young offenders’ detention centre are likelier than the merits of pre-release hostels to arouse controversy among penologists. The Criminal Justice Act, 1954, empowered the Justice Department to provide detention centres for offenders aged from 17 to 23. Pressure on prison accommodation generally has delayed the plan till now: but in the meantime studies of the British detention centres by an internation-ally-known criminologist, Dr. Grunhut, and by Mr P. K. Mayhew, director of the New Zealand Penal Division, have confirmed the department’s opinion that the centres would be “a “most useful penal auxiliary”. The department’s last annual report commented: “ A detention “centre is not a universal “ panacea for the adolescent “offender, but it may serve “ the purpose for many

“ who may otherwise be “sent to Borstal training “and others for whom pro- " bation is virtually a cer“tain failure”. A successful penal system requires a wide variety of institutions to cope with the infinite problems of human frailty. By diversifying its physical resources the Justice Department should be able to exploit more fully the scientific skills and humane approach without which all social progress is depressingly slow.