WASTE OF SENTIMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 5 October 1931, Page 8

WASTE OF SENTIMENT

NO DESPAIR IN DEATH CELL. PRISON GOVERNOR- ASTOUNDED. LONDON, August 19. Murderers never break down in the condemned cell or on their way to the ‘gallows. That is the experience of LieutenantColonel Charles E. F. Rich, D. 5.0., who has just retired from the post of governor of Wandsworth Gaol after thirty years in prison service. "It has always astounded me to find murderers so cool and collected even when they know there is no hope of a (reprieve,” he said, in a talk with a newspaper representative last evening. “I have never known a murderer give way to despair in the condemned cell, and I have never known one falter on his way to the gallows. No one can ,tell what are their inner-most thoughts, but T have always found them, to all outward appearances, quite unmoved. “Hanging a man is an unpleasant job, but it has to he done. I would not abolish capital punishment for the worst class of murderers, but I do think •there be various degrees of murder, and that the punishment should be graded according to the enormity of the crime.’ Colonel Rich has seen many changes j in prison conditions since he joined the I service, but he is not sure they are 1 I all for the best. “Tt seems to me there is a tendency to be too ‘sloppy’ over prisoners,” he said. “Concerts and lectures are all very well, but a man should be made to earn the privilege of attending, and he should not he allowed to expect such • relaxations a-s a right. “Then there is a tendency to relax j discipline, and there is too much foolish sentiment wasted over prisoners. j “I am the first- to agree that the man who wants to go straight diolild be j given every chance, but at the same , time it is as well to remember thatthere are hundreds- of blackguards in { the -prisons of the country who have no intention of leading an honest life.” .