MOUNT COOK PRISON.

Evening Star, Issue 6726, 7 October 1885, Page 1

MOUNT COOK PRISON.

This " model" penal establishment comes in for unqualified condemnation at the hands of Mr Justice Richmond, who Bays that it is a perfect wonder to him that it should have been erected in its present position. He deprecated that view of penal discipline which confined men within such limits, and his own view was that it could not be carried out within such narrow limits. He had no hesitation in saying that he looked upon the erection of this building with absolute disgust. He did not know what the authorities thought, but it seemed to him terrible to place a large penal institution in the midst of a large city, and thus put crime in such a prominent position. He did not know what the Te Aro people thought about it, but he would be very sorry to live under the walls of a gaol all bis life. The main things he regretted in regard to the gaol itself were the wart of room and the want of power of classification. The want of room made it to his mind inhuman to confine persons for life. Prisoners ought to be able to rise by good conduct to some comforts of existence, and that might be managed if penal establishments were on a sufficiently extensive scale.