The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, August 25, 1910. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 883, 25 August 1910, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, August 25, 1910. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

In his charge to the Grand Jury at the Auckland Supreme Court, the Chief Justice, Sir Robert Stout, referred at length to prison reform, and said that if one took the trouble to investigate the history of many criminals, he would find ample evidence of the effects of heredity. Some criminal? might be said to be hardly responsible for their actions. They required to be restrained. They must not run away with the idea that prison reform was going to entirely do away with crime. They could not expect to eliminate it in a short while. They might make no progress for fifty or a hundred years, but it was enough to make a beginning. A prison might be a place ot detention, but he thought prisoners should have more freedom and amusement than at present. One of the most potent factors in repressing crime was the fact that the criminal knew the certainty of conviction. That fact would have far greater effect on him than punishment. Where a jury found excuses for a man and neglected to do its duty there you would find crime prevalent. Careless or negligent juries meant that crime would flourish. Numbers of criminals are hereditarily handicapped in life, and their detention is necessary to protect society. But that they should be subjected to the old-time horrible process is inhuman. The Chief Justice and Minister for Justice are to be commended for the interest they are taking in prison reform.