THE RECENT GAOL RETURNS.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2699, 1 December 1882, Page 3

THE RECENT GAOL RETURNS.

[PROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.]

WELLINGTON, November 30.

A good deal of comment is being excited by a return just computed of the detention of prisoners beyond terms of original sentence, which I telegraphed to you last night. Special attention has been attracted by the case of one man in Dunedin gaol who received a sentence of three days' imprisonment for drunkenness. He was sent to Dunedin gaol on the 24th January, but he did not come out till the 4th August, having thus been detained for nearly seven months instead of only three days. The return shows that he received from the Visiting Justices successive sentences of " fourteen days," '* seven days," " twentyone days," "six weeks," "two month?," "fourteen days," and "one month/' for idleness. It has been remarked as an extraordinary thing that a man sentenced to three days' imprisonment for such an offence as drunkenness, shonld be liable to have his term of incarceration multiplied by sixty-four times, merely because he was idle in gaol. There are other cases of; similar nature, although much less extreme in degree. It is thought probable that the disclosures will lead to some review of the general powers and status of Visiting Justices as part of the general reform in the prisons system of the colony.