CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 101, 1 May 1930, Page 15

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

ABOLITION CALLED FOR

HOWARD LEAGUE RESOLUTIONS

"That capital punishment in Is row Zealand be abolished)" was a resolution passed to-day by the annual conference of the 'New Zealand Howard League for Penal Reform. It was also decided to urge that legal aid in both Courts should bo provided for indigent accused persons. Other remits carried by the confei'enco at yesterday's and to-day's sittings were as "under:— "That the Department be asked to devise some plan by which prisoners shall be prepared for re-entry into civil life before the expiry of their seutences." "That for Borstal inmates we urge that provision bo made for grouping in separate houses, under a matron and superintendent, thus allow- | ing for definite classification.' '•' SICK PRISONERS. "That.the medical and hospital arrangements made for sick prisoners are inadequate, and we urge the Department to improve them as speedily as possible^ . To lie when ill, locked up in a cubicle or cell, alone, is intensified solitary confinement, .since it takes place when the prisoner is unable to combat the influence of- isolation. Under the present circumstances, 'reporting sick' entails such ■, consequences that, though they discourage malingering, there is a grave danger, in case of epidemic diseases, that a prisoner will not report until the disease is a danger both to his life and to the lives of others." REFORMATIVE DETENTION. "That since it is admitted that sentences respectively of hard labour and reformative detention produce practically no difference whatever in prison treatment, the sentence of 'reformative detention' be abolished. True reformative treatment could at present be much more effectively' and economically given, if the prevailing system _of sentencing to long terms of reformative detention (which are found to impair rather than strengthen initiative, judgment, and sense of responsibility) could be exchanged either for strict probation, or for comparatively brief terms of really hard labour, followed by a comparatively long term of supervision within the community on probationary licence." "' - ACCUSED PERSONS' RIGHTS. ''That notices informing prisoners of their rights should be posted by the Department in all lock-ups." .- STATUS OF WARDERS. "That it is necessary to raise the status of prison officials by requiring higher initial qualifications and by the provision of subsequent courses of training, of a wider educational naturo than obtain at the present time." EDUCATIONAL -COURSES FOR PRISONERS. "That a system of cultural adult education be established to provide new and healthy interests for prisoners and bring them into contact with tutors of character and personality; and that an educational adviser be appointed to each prison, to assist and advise the superintendent in the development of the scheme (tutors to be voluntary)."