PRESSING NEED FOR REFORM

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 45, 17 November 1926, Page 12

PRESSING NEED FOR REFORM

NEW ZEALAND’S PROBATION SYSTEM SHOULD BE SEPARATED FROM PRISONS EX-CONTROLLER GENERAL’S VIEW Dominion Special. Auckland, November 16. The pressing need (or reform in the probation system m New Zealand was stressed bv Mr. Hawkins, late Coni troller-General of Prisons and Chief Probation Officer of New Zealand, when giving his views on the present proposed changes in the system. Mr. Hawkins said that the proposal to appoint full-time probation officers in the four centres was not a recent one. It was the fixed intention of the late Mr. C. E. Matthews, a former Chief Probation Officer, to have the administration of the system placed on a more satisfactory basis, and the appointment of full-time officers was one of the matters which was to receive immediate attention. Mr. Hawkins himself was of the same opinion, and on taking over the position had prepared a report recommending that four full-time probation officers should be provided, one for each of the centres,. with an assistant in the case of the Auckland office. Nothing, however, was done in the matter, and he heard nothing further until the present changes were mooted. Referring to the proposal to establish committees of social workers, Mr. Hawkins was emphatic in declaring that such would be a grievous mjgtake. "If the greatest care is not exercised in selecting such helpers,” he said, “the whole system may easily be wrecked. No matter how careful a selection is made, friction is almost certain_ to arise, and workers, instead of being a help, will in many cases prove a positive hindrance.” The present system, added Mr. Hawkins, whereby a probation officer had the assistance _of prisoners’ aid societies, the Salvation Army, and men such as the Rev. J. Calder and the Rev. G. Budd, had worked admirably. Such men had had long experience of social service, and were able to understand the difficulties to be encountered in dealing with those who had erred. With the average social worker such experience was usually lacking.

“At present,” continued Mr. Hawkins, “the whole probation system in New Zealand is conducted by the Prisons Department. This arrangement is not satisfactory, and there should be no connection between the two further than is absolutely necessary. The general opinion of international prisons commissions is that prisons and probation should not be mixed up. No further time should be lost in making a change in the management of the svstem in New Zealand. It is not to the credit of New Zealand that it should lag behind and continue to allow the Prisons Department to control the system. Apart from other reasons, it must be admitted that probation work has increased to such an extent as to warrant it being placed on an entirely separate basis.”