Britain to Train. Warders in New Metliods

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 196, 4 September 1937, Page 16

Britain to Train. Warders in New Metliods

LONDON — Prison warders in Britain aro to have a "University" of their own. It. is to be situated at Wakefield Prison, where, after experiments which have lasted over a eonsiderable period, a special building is now to be erected. The "University" will be know as the Imperial Training School for Prison Ofiicers, and from it, after undergoing a tkorougk training in what migkt be deseribed as "the new idea" in penal administration, recruits will be sent out not^only to British prisons but also to tlioso of British colonies seattered over the world. The need of such. an institution and of such training has Leen recognized by the Prison Commissioners. Prison staffs, from the governor down. ward, have, in the past, becn drawn largely from the Auny and Navy, and the-re-sult has been that an iron diseipline has prevailed, with severe punishment for any infringement of it. This has made the introduction of measures tending toward reform Tather than retribution exccedingly difiieult. The Prison Commissioners now declare their belief that a good statf is of greater importance than buildings. " Wakefield Prison, where the new school is to be situated, is already known as a centre at which penal experiments .are tricd with men who shovv signs that reform might come most easily to them nnder a certain elasticity of conditions. At Wakefield, the men work in "crews," each with a specially trusted man in charge as "stroke." It is largely the niethod which has attained such success in the Borstal Institutes for juvenile offenders. There is cricket on Saturday afternoons, oi* football. There is an earnings scheme, and an educational scheme. Each "crew" is allowed a newspaper. Outside the walls, is Ihe now famous Prison Camp where selectcd men go for dajs and nights on end lo fell trees, to live in homely huts, to conduct themselves on their honour — witkout having

specially promised to do so, under a imnimuin of supervision. fcJuch an atmosphere has been deemcd propitions to the.starting of an educational scheme among the men who, although not themselves executives, are still responsible for carrying out the rcforms instituted by authority. Prison rcgulations will one day be overhauled in Great Britain. The new "University" is regarded as a hopeful sign that this overhauling js already on the way.