TUITION BY POST FOR CONVICTS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1054, 18 February 1911, Page 6

TUITION BY POST FOR CONVICTS.

' ! i ' NOVEL HOME OFFICE EXPEEIMEAT. . •■ - An interesting experiment in prison reform' is about to be mads by the Home Office. A number of convicts ,serving long sentences and lads in the Borstal institutions are to bo given courses of instruction by correspondence through the medium of. the International Correspondence School. ■ , : In a letter addressed to, that institution the secretary to "the Prison Commissioners lias stated that the innovation is the outcome of an experiment undertaken by the authorities ot the International Correspondence Schools during this year in regard to twelve inmates of the Borstal Institution at Lincoln. That this experiment has shown good results is proved by the expressed determination of the commissioners to extend its application to tho other branches of the penal system/ The convicts with whom this fuller experiment will ba tried will be those whose'aptitudo appears to be promising and whose sentenced are long enough to onablo them to complete a course of in- ' struction. The records of the twelve, inmates of tho Lincoln' Borstal institution, where the experiment was .first tried, are extremely interesting.' When a representative 1 of the "Daily Mail" called upon the Aianager of the Students' Aid Department of the schools, these records, written oh neat green cards, were lying on his table. Ono of them told of a youth who firevious to his downfall, had been a bil-iard-marker, and who', had informed tho chaplain of the institution that he desired to become a sailor. . "It was plainly our duty to see that he should have'every chance of a successful career as a seaman, and, accordingly, the course chosen for him was that of mathematics and navigation. He has already mastered ono text-book on navigation, and over and above the study of arithmetic he .is now making rapid strides iu algebra, -logarithms, geometry, and trigonometry. Another youth, who before his conviction was described as a farm labourer, but who really was little more than a loafer, is equally enthusiastic in his endeavours to fit' himself for a seafaring life. - ' . ' "Knowledge will be something more, than power to such fellows as these; It will mean tho restitution of,pridc and a sense of self-fitness., There is something, even more than this in the sclicuiei Surely it is only right that convicts may in those hours they spend,alone in their .cells every evening lie given an opportunity of oecunying their minds with something which thev will realise must mean more to them than mere, pastime. ■ . ■ - - 1

"The schools arc also prepared to leach those who desire to study languages by means of a phonographic system. Those prisoners who may be allowed by the authorities this privilege will be furnished with records which will teach them proper pronunciation. They in turn will •speak into the machine. and~uius at headquarters • we will have excellent means of marking their progress. Further. we propose to give picture shows in tho various prisons— probablv commencing at Wormwood Scrubs—illustrating to the prisoners a number of industries and the prosperity which accrues to those engaged in them."-