WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 20 May 1927, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

PENAL REFORM. WORK' OF HOWARD LEAGUE. (Special to “ Guardian ”.) 'WELLINGTON, Muv 17. Rarely lias the need for a wider ; understanding of the meaning and sigui lieu nee of penal reform been more pointedly exemplified than it was at a meeting addressed hy .Miss E. K. Baiiglian in Wellington at the week end. -Miss Ranghan. who is as widely known among reading people hy her literary achievements as she is among social workers hy her philanthropic labours, had tome up from Christchurch as the representative of the Howard League in the hope of quirkoning local interest in the work of this pioneering organisation. She had been for five years, she told her interested audience, an official visitor to the women’s prison in ( hristchurch, and during that period hy observation and inquiry bad learned n good deal about the inmates and the prison system. She had retired from her position, not because she had any grievance against the prison authorities, nor. indeed, against the prisons themselves; hut because she fell the time had arrived when she would devote her activities rather to a penal reform than to prison reform. There had been a great difference in the progress of the two problems. Prison reform had progressed rapidly in recent years, but penal reform had lagged sadly behind other philanthropic developments. THE BETTER WAY. Proceeding, .Miss Ranghan said the prison system, notwithstanding all the ameliorations of the last hall century, still clung tenaciously to the idea that crime, as it styled all human weaknesses, could he met effectually by physical punishment. This punishment no doubt was much less barbarous than it was a century ago, and to some extent it was administered with discretion ; hut still many of the feebleminded, the wrongly-born, the victims of wretched surroundings, the wrecks of pernicious environment were held solely responsible for the sins ol their forefathers and for the criminal indifference of society. Surely. Miss Bnughati pleaded, there was a better way than this for the alleviation and the ultimate cure of the evils which from time immemorial had beset the world. The zeal of the Authorities, she urged, should not he devoted mainly to getting people into prison, hut to keeping them out ol prison. Prison reform had done much, almost all it could lie expected to do; hut penal reform would do much more and it was not a hopeless task. The object of the Howard League was to cheek the production of habitual criminals, by avoiding unnecessary detention. by classifying prisoners with a view to preventing tbeir further degeneration, bv giving the man who had fallen from grace a generous chance to recover his position, and hy stopping definitely the propagation of crime. TilK HOWARD LEAGUE.

The Howard League, Miss Ranghan explained, was not a body •>! mere dreamers and tiresome cranks, out to accomplish the impossible and to make the lives of its friends a misery. It numbered among its members judges, magistrates, lawyers, clergymen of all denominations, and many oilier earnest every-day practical people. There were no salaries to be earned and no dividends to receive; but there was much work to bo clone and the privilege of assisting in doing it would cost the subscriber linlf-a-crowAi. Her last word was that she had no cpmrrel with tlio New Zealand prison system. Jt was not the best in the world—the .Mother Country in this respect had left the Dominion behind—hut it was the honest creation of earnest, wellmeaning men, many of whom were the friends and helpers of the League. What was wanted now was a united effort on the part of the public towards penal reform, which would include continued prison reform, and a full recognition of the country’s duty towards t]io unhappy victims of a multitude of averse circumstances. Towards the accomplishment of this task she invited the assistance of every willing worker anxious to help along a great national movement. PRESENT CONDITIONS.

In the course of her address Miss Paughan emphasised the gravity of a first committal to prison, returning to the subject more than once to quote .-. case in which a whole life had been ruined by the association of an unfortunate or discouraged youth or man with .hardened criminals even for a few hours, Tn the evening [taper of the next day tl(g following report of a case which might have fitted Miss Haughan’s contention appeared : —• “ Pocking employment, Frederick Smith walked from Auckland to Wellington, hut failed to get work. Sometimes he wont hungry, and sometimes he was given food by kindly farmers. When he arrived in Wellington ho was completely ‘down and out,’ and he, willingly accompanied to the police station the. constable who found him sleeping in n doorway in Allen Street early this morning. ‘He was in a very greasy, dirty eonditoin,’ said Senior-Sergeant Lander, when Smith, who is a labourer, agetl TO, appeared in the- Magistrate’s Court, charged with vagrancy. Mr J. H. Salmon (tn the accused!: ‘ I think you had better he kept under restraint for a time and cleaned up. A'ott will he sentenced to one month’s imprisonment.’ ” The facts revealed here, at any rate, indicate a rather deplorable state of affairs.