Prison Reform.

Hokitika Guardian, 7 November 1922, Page 4

Prison Reform.

ENGLISH AND NEW ZEALAND SYSTEATS. OA MARF, November 3. A cable message appeared in the N- w Zealand pn]>crs this week giving an outline of some reforms to lie adopted in the prison system iri England. This mess ge was briefly touched upon by the Hon. K. P. Lee. Minister < f Justice, in his address at Malic.no. “It was difficult.” said the Minister “to get people to take an interest in our prisons and their inmates and it was not widely known that the system in operation in New Zealand was one of the most up-to-date in the world The dispensing with the broad arrow on prisoners’ clothes was a reform mentioned in tho cable message to ho carried out in English prisons that had been done in. New Zealand's prison reformatories some time ago, and had in a measure tended in the direction of giving the inmates a more hopeful outlook on life, and at the same time had helped in the conduct and reformation. The men in our reformatories —the Borstal Institution in Invercargill, the AVaikeria prison farm in the Waikato, the Wi Tako prison brickmaking works ! at AATllington, and the Haute prison j farm? near Toknnnu—were men who • were working hard at their healthy j employment in the open air and very many of them, by reason of their treat- [ merit whilst under detention, and their vast improvement mentally and constitutionally, now properly viewed their responsibilities to society, and would not offend again.” Mr T.ee added that the knowledge of the prisons and reformatories of New Zealand he had gained since he had been a member of flie Government enabled him to say that the Home authorities could with advantage copy our methods. !