FOND OF GAOL

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 219, 10 June 1919, Page 6

FOND OF GAOL

an Unusual case •'HALF-WAY'.' INSTITUTION NEEDED The need of the establishment -of an institution for the. reception of peoplo who are yeak-minded, but not essentially criminal or insane, .was stressed by Mr. F. V. Frazer, S.M., during the hearing of a most unusual caso at the Magistrate's Court yesterday. A fairly stal-wart-looking man named John Marshall was charged with being an incorrigible rogue, and he pleaded guilty. Acting-Sub-liispector Emerson remarked that defendant appeared to like working in gaol. As soon as he was releasod he would go to the police, complaining that he could,not find work, and ask to tie 6ent back' to prison again. Ho had often bepii in gaol on charges of vagrancy, but never for insobriety nor for any orime. At one time he had been an inmate of a mental institution. On Sunday morning defendant went to the Mount Cook police and asked to b» returned to gaol.

"It seems a strange tiling that a man should epnio along and ask to go to gaol," observed 3ir. Frazer. "The average man is anxious to keep out of there if possible." , , .

3ia'rshall agreed that the statement made by Mr: Emerson was correct. 110 desired to go back to tho prison. "It is a great pity that we have not got one of those half-way houses such as thev hnve in' America, where we could send cases like this," commented Mr. Frazer. "He is not sufficiently mentally deficient to bo sent to a mental hospital, and yet he is not a criminal. Something will have to be done for him; we cannot leave him at large. If wo do he'll only come and ask us, to put him in gaol. If we had one of these half-ivay house-; where we could send people like this for treatment, where tho> would .be under some form of medical supervision, and where they could be kent so as not to be a.danger to.thcmcolvps and the rest of the community, it would be a good thing. There are' numbers of cases of this kind that wn could accommodate in Mich a home as 1' ' have mentioned if there were on? available."

11l the -circumstances. His - Worship, thought the best thing to do fcojild he to order Marshall to undergo not mora than three yours' reformative treatment. 'This would he belter than sending th» man up for a tenuof imprisonment, as he was not a criminal. If some action of the kind were not taken the mail would bo picked up dead. The Prisons Board could consider any application for reloase that might be made.