“MORE THAN A TONIC”

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 48, 20 November 1926, Page 14

“MORE THAN A TONIC”

KINDLY AID TO DIS. CHARGED PRISONERS

bread cast upon the WATERS In the annual report of the Discharged Prisoners’ Aid Society, the animal meeting of which was held yesterday, some light is thrown on the good "work which this organisation unostentatiously performs every year. After having given a brie: outline of the work performed by the society during the past year, the report proceeds as follows: — . .

“The society thus contributes in a very material way to the well-being of persons who have suddenly to face a very unsympathetic world. When a man leaves prison with health and muscle on his side he can with comparative ease face that world. But the man who is at a distinct loss is the weakly non-manual worker. These are, however, comparatively few. Most men improve in health in prison. Longsentence clerical men have their share, too, of hard labour, but the short-term prisoner is often sadly handicapped on his" release with inability to apply himself to the hard conditions to which he is restricted. This applies more particularly to the man that is at all elderly, "in this connection the society will always be glad to learn of any odd jobs that may be offering. The chief difficulty, in fact, in the society’s activities is in securing suitable work of any description. It was accentuated this" year by the dearth of employment throughout the whole of the country.

“The society also stands to assist a man in the reformation that may have begun in prison, and discharged prisoners aid societies have often struck a note of encouragement that sends a man onward with a new heart. If these men can be led to feel that behind the effort there is a genuine brotherliness that reproves as well as inspires, it is more than a tonic to them. Obtrusive sympathy and molly-coddling, on the other hand, do real harm. A man must be led to feel that he is not so much a subject for commiseration as one who is both worthy and capable of better efforts in life, and that he lias a place to fill in God’s world that can only be filled by himself. “A good deal of the help given is like bread cast upon the waters, and, in fulfilment of the proverb, some of it does return. The men are encouraged to refund any monetary assistance given. In this way over £9 was returned bv twelve men ; in two or three cases, too, by men who had repeatedly been in prison.”