CRIME IN NEW ZEALAND.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 896, 19 December 1870, Page 2

CRIME IN NEW ZEALAND.

[evening .post.] Addressing the Grand Jury the other day, his Honor Mr Justice Johnston stated that he had no hesitation in saying that of the two hundred and fifty persons committed to the jails of the Colony last year, under sentences of imprisoment for indictable offences, the majority would gain their liberty in a worse condition morally, and in a state more dangerous to society than at the time of their committal. No man in this Colony has had a better opportunity of acquiring experience in regar4 to the state of our jails than Mr Justice Johnston, for, in addition to what he has learned in the course of the ordinary discharge of his judicial function, lie was Chairman of the Commission on Prisons, and the author of the able and exhaustive report which was laid before the Assembly a few sessions ago. His opinion is, therefore, entitled to the greatest possible weight, and the fact which he has stated is one of the most startling character. It becomes almost appalling when coupled with another state* nient made by his Honor on the same occasion—that the proportion of crime to population was as great in the Colony as in the United Kingdom, although the temptations to crime were infinitely less. The two statements placed together amount to this: that we have already amongst us as many of the criminal class in proportion to our population as they have in and tjiat so far from any effort being made to reform any portion of this class, or any steps being taken to deter them from indulgence in criminal proclivities, we maintain an expensive machinery for the purpose of malting [ these men worse, and inciting them to fresh crime. This being so, it is no wonder that Mr Justice Johnston considers it his duty to bring the matter prominently before the public on every possible occasion. The question is really one'of the most serious and important social subjects of the day. It is one which has engaged the attention of almost every civilised community, and although the peculiar geographical features of New Zealand surround it with peculiar difficulties in our case, still the experience of other places must prove of use to us, and sooner or later the subject must be dealt with. It is anything but satisfactory to know that we are spending between £BO,OOO and JSpO.OOQ a year on jails, police, and the maintenance of legal tribunals, and that the main result is to make bad men worse, to confirm criminals in crime, and then to turn tbem loose on society in a condition more dangerous to its peace than when it was found necessary to incarcerate them. A single glance at one of the hard labor gangs in our streets will, however, convince anyone possessed uf a little knowledge of the offences which the members of the gang are expiating, that his Honor's statements were not exaggerated, and that our so-called system of punishmeut is in reality a system of education in crime. The ruaaway or disobedient sailor fur instance, who is sentenced to a month's imprisonment for what is an offence, but can hardly be regarded as a crime, is herded with the felon wh° has been convicted over and over again of the most serious crimes. They are dressed alike, treated alike ; they have free intercourse with each other, and as the law begins by placing the offender on the same level with the criminal, there can be little wonder if in a great many cases the man who has been deprived of his self respect in a perfectly legal way rebels against the law under which he has been so treated, and listens readily to the criminal lessons of those into whose companionship he has been thrown. In almost all the jails of the Colony there is an entire absence of classification, because there are no facili? ties for effecting it. Each of our jails is maintained by a different government, and at as ehoap a rate as possible. There is no uniformity of discipline, there are no facilities for keeping different classes of prisoners separated from each other, and so most of the jails have bloomed into educational establishments, at which the curriculum includes instruction in all kinds of crime and vice—-the lifers and long sentence men acting the part of resident professors, and being assisted in their work by a large staff of temporary masters. It is impossible to read the report of the Prison Commissioners, without being struck with horror as to the state of things revealed to be existing in pur jails, ajid we can quite sympathise

with the feeling which led one of the most amiable and intelligent men in the Assembly last session—the late lamented Francis <Jollie—during the heat of the debate on the financial statement, to call attention to that report, and to urge that if money was to be borrowed for public works, one of the first of those works should be the erection of a central penal establishment, where confirmed criminals might be confined and properly punished, where their labor might be utilised, and where they could no longer contaminate others by evil precept and evil example. Mr Jollie was laughed at by the House, but there was good common-sense philanthropy in what he said, ami if something is not speedily done in the direction indicated, the results will be of the inosfc dire consequence. We are allowing the wind to be sown and the time will soon come when we shall reap the whirlwind,