A Lesson from Japan.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 15 September 1910, Page 4

A Lesson from Japan.

THE CASE FOR THE WOMAN PRISONER. (By Elizabeth Sloan Ohesser, 1M.8.) The Aibuse of the prison system in England is 'being healthily ventilated at the present time. Mr Winston Churchill's proposals, when carried out, will go tar to metamorphose the old. idea of punishment into a new one of hope and reform for the prisoner. A great dieal has already been done for the child offender in the matt&r of children's courts, protection of first offenders and the Borstal system, particularly as it is applied to boys. Something has also been done- for the men, and more is to be done in supply ing an educative mnthoc! of reform. But what of the woman prisoner The women have not one chance in ten thousand of making foi themselves a place as honest women once they have been inside a, 'prison gate. There are 50,000 women prisoners in England, and statistics biding forward the fact that the proportion of women who are frequently convicted is mjicli ,greatei than tiiat of men prisoners. ll' discharged, men prisoners find it d'fTcult to obtain work ; discYirgod women prisoners are faced with an impossibility. There are no LABOUR COLONIES

for women prisoners, no definite, honest work for them to do when they leave prison. "\Ve have over 5000 women received into local prisonr, per annum who have been convicted move than twenty times. More than 33,000 women prisoners, that is, four-fifth of the total number, have been previously convicted. 'Many of these women should never have been in prison. The new proposal to permit fines bein gpaid by instalments will deal with a certain proportion of these. At the same tune, a very large number of the women a.re feeble-minded:, and all these ought to be in special colonies instead of loft to drift as flotsam and jetsam from the street to the prison, the prison to the gutter. And what of the remainder?

Their one chance of salvation lies in providing tihem with ample measure of educative, interesting work of a type that will help them to obtain an honest livelihood on their discharge. What wavk is supplied to the 700 women who form the daily average of prisoners in Plolloway? Are they

TAUGHT TRADES and handicrafts as in Japan, where women as well as men .are fitted wliilo in prison to make their own living from the day they leave? T visited the largest mixed prison frur 'both men and women near Tokio «i few years ago. The prisoners, in their picturesque pink kimonos, wore all busily engaged in some sort of work. The cells, iwhich accommodate three, five, seven or more prisoners, were empty. The Governor, who, like most Japanese Jiad! an intense ad-mi-ation for English institutions, apologised for the fact that they had not yet adopted the English system gf solitary confinement. May they nover bo Europeanised to this extent! The cells, indeed, in every Japanese prison are practically sleeping dormitories, as the prisoners are engaged in the worksheets all day, or atending lectures and lessons in educational subjects, deportment and • morality. The small Japanese, women prisoner is oven taught how to serve tea properly, because the Japanese have grasped the fundamental truth that whatever raises a woman's selfrespect helps to eliminate had habits—in a tlorw, to reform her. The keen zest of the prisoners in Japan contrasts with the hopeless, hunteel look of our women prisoners in England! Tn Japan, the women prisoners are learning, learning, learning all the time.

They an 0 e;iven prizes and decorative rewards for excellence. They are being encouraged instead of repressed. Everything; is done to instil a real desire for permanent reform.

Contrast this with tho woxik of the women prisoners in civilised I twentieth century England. They have first a period of solitary confinement, which is long enough to take any remaining spirit and hope out of them. Then they are given work for so many hours'a day, but from five in the afternoon ' mntil next nioiiiiing they are left alone in their cells to hr'ood over the horror and weariness and LONELINESS OF LIVING. A large number work in the laundry, some clean and sciroib the corridors, others make the hideous prison clothes which in themselves are sufficient to take away the selfrespect of any woman who wears them. Tll-fitting, shapeless, unsightly and almost indecent, they are absolutely useless for teachijio dressmaking or tailor work. Pro" porly cut and fitted and finished with a decent allowance of buttons and tapes and .fastenings,, they would .serve to teach and' train the women in the useful art of dressmaking and add to their sense of neatness and self-respect at the same time.

, Cooking, as organised at present, is useless for purposes of teaching J , , very tin ng is cooked in huge •boilers, and no opportunity is proyittecl lor tho prisoners who help in the kitchen to acquire a knowedge of simple cooking for (household purposes. Then there are the prisoners who Piok the fibre stuffing of tho beds, labour hut one degree remoVed from oakum picking. A few weed the garden and out tho grass-a healthy occupation, but hardly educat.vo or reformatory ,if the future ot these women is to be considered.

Jll America the aim of administration is to convert the prisoners into useful citizens, capable of selfsupnort on leaving prison. THE PRISONERS. to cook, to wash and iron in eucl a .fnsjuon that they can make tS pil fflfte^ ards « s skilled launn Tf S 'i taught canin« and basket work, and given a genZ 'in IT" 1 trnini ?g clomltic and industrial pursuits. A lanre i»»nber of discliarged women SE one™ diiofly firsr offenders" plaoed ,„ domestic service. it has I'oen found impossible to *,rppl v the demand in tin's direction Thm w!" tlmt 88 por cent o 'first o?-