Accusations Against Borstal System Made in Parliament

Grey River Argus, 2 October 1948, Page 8

Accusations Against Borstal System Made in Parliament

WELLINGTON, October 1

Urgency was taken for consideration of the various classes of estimates in charge of the Minister of Justice the Hon. H. G. R. Mason when the House of Representatives resumed this morning. Mr J. R>. Hanan (Nat, Invercargill) expressed concern over the prequency of prison escapes and crimes committted by escapees, particularly from Borstal institutions.

Mr T. P. Shand (Nat Marlborough) quoted the instance of a man sentenced in March, 1944, to five years in a Borstal on a charge of attempted murder, who was, in July, 1947 back in the neighbourhood of the home of an elderly woman whom he had badly battered previously. She and her friends were fearful lest he should attempt to complete the job he had started before his arrest. The matter was referred to the Minister of Justice. The latter took a scathing attitude towards a prominent citizen who had intervened. The Minister considered this man who had been released after such a short term, had been reformed. To-day that man was in gaol after leaving a trail of robberies behind him.

Mr Shand said that such youm thugs in Borstals were corrupting other younger prisoners. The borstals would become breeding grounds for crime. The introduction of birching in the Borstals would be effectiv because there was a type of youth who understood no form of punishment except corporal punishment. SHIP DESERTERS The Minister, answering points raised by members, said he could not agree with Mr A. E. Armstrong (Government Napier) that the Prisons Department had any particular obligation to provide duties for those who deserted ships in New Zealand ports. He saw no need to shed tears over them.

Mr J. T. Watts (Nat St. Alban) He will be asking for State houses for them next.

Mr Mason said it, was a simple but untenable philosophy to suggest that anyone who could not ensure the community against crime was erring toward leniency. No community or country in any age had been able to eradicate crime merely by the use ol severity toward prisoners.

NEW HEIGHTS!

It was easy to say Borstals were a breeding-ground for criminals, but such statements did not always accord with the facts. This reasoning reached new limits recently when a man, charged with several offences of bigamy said he had learned that crime in the Borstal (laughter). Mr Mason claimed that the newer methods of treatment of prisoners had resulted in a higher percentage of successful reformations of criminals tha n had the older and more severe methods.