PRISON REFORM.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 813, 15 August 1870, Page 4

PRISON REFORM.

I From the Evening Post, August 3.J The Commissions on Prisons, which we mentioned a few days ago, recommended in their report that as the formation of a central penal establishment must necessarily occupy a considerable period of time, whilst the evils arising from the present system pursued in our prisons are imminent and accumulating, it was necessary that the Legislature should at once adopt measures for inaugurating re forms, The reforms suggested were these: Ist. The separation of persons waiting for trial from those under sen tence, and among themselves, the separation of persons previously convicted from those not previously con victed. 2nd. The complete separation of convicts under short sentences from each other, at the commencement and

'before the conclusion of their terms; '.-aid the administration of sharp punishment in the first period of the sentence by some of the methods now in use in the United Kingdom. 3rd. fhe .separation of juvenile offenders previous to their removal to a reformatory. 4th. Provision for the separate punishment of females. sth. Provision for some industrial occupation within the precincts of the prison All these are wise and necessary inea sures : at present, prisoners awaiting trial which may result in establishing their innocence of the charges made against them, are compelled to associate, for a considerable portion of their time, with the most desperate characters to be found in the community, and it is impossible that they can avoid a certain amount of con lamination. And even granting that

they escape contamination, they are held to be innocent men until they are proved guilty, and it is an injustice that they should be forced i'i:to the society of felons. Separation of con victs from each those under punishment for first offences—is also extremely desirable. Punishment borue in seclusion is far more afflictive than when borne in company, and intercourse with fellow sufferers lightens the load materially. " As iron sharpeneth iron, so doth the countenance of man his friend," and the man who, apart from others, would reflect on his past conduct aud its consequences, and resolve to live a new life in future, will, in company, learn to harden himself —to believe that he is a victim wronged by society, and to cherish thoughts of revenge instead ol repentance. These are the feelings which warp a nature originally good, and convert the man, whose first ok fence was perhaps venial, step by step, into a hardened criminal. If we examine the long dismal roll of convicts transported from England to the neighboring Colonies, we shall find that thousands of those who reached the bad eminence of notoriety in guilt were originally convicted of trifling offences, such as poaching, or in Ireland being found with arms in their houses, and, yet by companionship with others, by the time their original sentences were completed, they were fit for the perpetration of any crime, however diabolical. The same causes are producing the same effects here, although in a lesser degree, and, under our present system, nothing but an amount of determination, not shown in. one case ou,t of a. hundred", can pre-

vent a man who has once erred being lost for ever, A reformatory for juvenile offenders is an institution urgently required. It is perfectly monstrous to send boys of tender age to associate with men grown mature in vice, and yet such must either be done, or else gross offences against the law condoned. We can readily imagine a boy brought up charged with i the commission of an offence, which, both for his own sake and that of society, requires punishment, and yet the Judge hesitating before he pronounced a sentence, which would, in effect, be his condemnation to a life of infamy. We have no provision for industrial occupations within the of any of our system which, in other countries, has been adopted with the most striking success. In same of the American prisons, trades of all kinds are taught and worked at, and the production of useful articles is something enormous, while the profits in some cases almost render the gaols self-supporting. Working at these trades, where men are divided into classes, and in most instances are kept apart, not only enables great order and decorum to be maintained, but gives the prisoners opportunity for and habits of reflection, and where they are allowed not only to have their extra work counted against them, but also receive small suras, which accumulate into a fuud against the expiration of their sentence, they have the strongest possible motives for orderly conduct, and in many cases leave the gaol thoroughly reformed—very different this to our only mode of employment, •« doing the Government stroke" eight hours a day. An incentive to good behaviour is the only means by which either good order can be maintained, or reformation accomplished, and this is proved by the fact that our present system of remitting a portion of their sentence to men who behave themselves well, is found to be the mos't powerful check on insubordi nation which the gaolers possess. If is impossible, in the present state of in st of the Provinces, that they can afford the menus for carrying out the reforms we have mentioned, and it becomes the duty of the General Go vernment, penning the formation of a central penal establishment, to assist them with such sums of money as would enable them to inaugurate at least some of the most urgent, and mitigate what are now crying evils.