The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1931. REFORMATIVE DETENTION.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 August 1931, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1931. REFORMATIVE DETENTION.

A significant feature of the report on prison administration which has been presented toi Pariament is the comment of the Prisons Board on “the futility for reformative purposes” short terms of. imprisonment. The report urges that consideration should be given to some alternative method of 'punishment, such as the imposition of a fine or admission to probation, in certain cases, while it recommends that, in cases in which the ends of justice cannot be served by such means, a salutary term of imprisonment should be inflicted. The practical experience of the Prisons Board evidently has guided it in this recommendation, which endorses the view that many independent persons have been reluctantly compelled to take. The phrase “reformative detention” sums up the attitude of the State towards offenders who are not vicious beyond hope of correction. But out of an ©nlighted conception of the responsibilities of society towards those found guilty of breaking the law developed a 'school of reformers, who appear to regard a criminal act, however deliberate and unsocial, 'as a manifestation of some form of mental disease in the offender. It Naturally followed from this a sumption that the criminal could not be held directly responsible for his; -offence any more than a lunatic could 'be blamed for exceses to which the disordered state of his mind might have impelled

him. Thus, from a sound, but strict,

code that meted out adequate discipline to the offender, the tendency was towards th e administration of justice tempered not by reasonable mercy but by distinct .leniency. General public opinion on the-subject of the punishment of crime has apparently, however, been undergoing a change. It now inclines again to the imposition of heavier sentences in the belief that they may be valuable through the deterrent effect they may have. But -it still recognise the importance of looking upon first offenders as a class to which special treatment should be acdordefd. The extension of the probationary system in New Zeaand since 1920 has, so far as can be judged in a decade, had distinctly encouraging results, comments a southern writer. There appears to he some reason for assuming .that a further ex.tensioli of the system may he beneficial. Iri cates, however, of a seriolis nature, and most noticeably, perhaps, in cases of robbery with violence, the public is -apt to regard light sentences as inadequate. The effect of a short sentence is likely to he, as the Prisons Boil'd has remarked, that the term of imprisonment ia insufficient to allow for the application of practical reformative methods, while the offender is nevertheless habituated to the conditions and atmosphere of the prison. Moreover, the deterrent effect of a light sentence is obviously less considerable than that of sentence to a stiff term of imprisonment. Generally speaking, the methods that have been adopted in New Zealand have proved fairly, effective. OF those men and women .sentenced to imprisonment between the years 1911 and 1929, 72.6 per cent, are said to have become honest citizens. Whether a greater proportion of these offenders would have reformed had they not been sent to gaol is a- question upon which it is impossible to form any judgment. A time of unemployment and general economic ftress is inevitably marked by ari increase in lawlessness, and indications have been that crime of a violent nature is increasing in New Zealand. In these circumstances the duty of the administrators' of justice seems plainly to he to accord a punishment that will fittingly mark a. sense of the gravity of the crime. Arguments against the imposition of salutary sentences lose much of their force, in any case, by reason of the fact that the Crimes Act requires that the Prisons Board shall at least once a year review that case of.every,.person serving a , sentence of imprisonment. Save In certain specified eases, the board can make a recommendation that any prisoner should ho released on probation or discharged.