WAR AND CRIME

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 68, 14 December 1920, Page 11

WAR AND CRIME

— —4 — REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS OF . • PRISONS , , i CONVICTS DYING OUT ] / The report of tho British Cora mis- i pioners of Prisons for tho year? IUI9-20, issued recently; is a dooument of eitraI ordinary and .vital interest, ' for ill shows for tho first time the effects on criminality of) the earthquake; which shivered every nerve of Europe for four tragic years:/ • _Tlie considered opinion of tho commissioners is expressed in the following section: < t "Though it is idle and rash to predict what the figures of crime may bo in tlie future, or to generalise from tho . records of the 'war period 1914-18, yet it .■would be lawful to derive encouragement from tlie fact that, in a period of reaction from the terrible •• strain .to which the nation has been subject, there should not have Been a greater disposition to illegal acts than the figures for tho year illustrate; and this is true not only 'of petty but of gravo crime. Only 1200 . juisonere' were received! for cAfent'A . against police regulations, as against 80(10 in 1913-14, and over 12,000 in 1910; only 1193 mole convicts are in penal 'servitude, as against 2700 in- 1911, and SOOO ■in 1910; and amongst , them a decrease of 62 per. cent in tho number of recidivist or habitual-criminals. ' "There is every. reason to hope that the supply of the convict'population is ■ failing—the great bulk being recidivists; and tliis bulk gradually diminishing, and being men who are-passing to the - later age categories, and gradually disappearing ' \from > , criminal . statistics. Young convicts under '21 have decreased 'by. 91 per cent'; in the last ten years*—tho figures being 9 as-compared with 100; while the age' category 21-30 has fallen 1 from 1033 to 190. ■ "These figures illustrate in a remarkable way the result, of the labour of all 'those engaged in the 'preventive' side .of social, .work; 'and 'illustrate that the nation is growing. lip into a well-edu-cated and, self-respecting manhood,- and they illustrate also that with which thi3 report is ' more specially concerned—tlie effect of tho .policy on which the attention 1 of this department has' been concentrated during the last 20 years, viz., tho prevention of crime, "under the 'system of preventive detention "for "the habitual criminal on the one .hand, cad •for the'reclamation of the young offender by .what is known, as the Borstal system, on the other. - i- "Inquiries wMoh ha,ve been made at eaoi prison whether, in tho opinion of : thp ftuthoiitiea thore, the prison population is likely to remain at its present low " level relatively to the. .'pre-war period, have elicited' a general.' opinion, that, as the result ,of demobilisation, an increase in the numbers will probably , take .place, ■but that the 'level which obtained prior to 1914 .is not likely to l>e:reuched; ' "Inquiries which, have been made into •jthe cases of- tho 6461 men committed -to prison" who- had 'served; with- the forces Bhow. that 3411,'.0r 53 per cent., were: first offenders, while 1398, or 22 per cent.; were classed as . habitual • criminals. ' f It has been . observed that a large proportion of these ex-soldiers re young men, socio earning good wages at v tlie time of th^dr ■ committal, arid that they were hot prompt- • ed to commit crime because of.'want, but " through slider lawlessnesst-which may. not have bcten due to criminal instincts, but generated by the conditions of active ser- . vice -in' different' . parts of the world, where tlv> normal restraints of conduct had bectn banished by the stress of war. "At Hollo way Prison, wlierb the receptions for drunkenness have -. increased from .511 last year to 964, the chaplain is of opinion that 1 the causes' are' largely ■the -result' 'of the poisonous nature of •'the spirits soldthe inflated wages' which ■ enable people to squander.'their money in whisky and".)>randy;-the:restless spirit engendered by .the war, flJid the general reluctance to return to the' normal routine of work.' . ■ "From many prisons reports have been received of lectures, and addresses .delivered to , "prisoners during thoj -year. At ' Pentoriville arid Wandsworth Prisons a weekly . debate ' amongst has been inaugurated as an. experiment.. Tha chaplain of tho former prison reports •that the'experiment has proved an,-un-qualified success, all concerned having entered into" tha spirit of tho enterprise. Subject to approval, the men select their own subject or <lebat& at previous ■week's me?ting. The-cnaplain states that lie 'cannot conceive of any more hiimtaising influence than that afforded by .those occasions,'" - .