CRIMINOLOGY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1042, 11 May 1912, Page 4

CRIMINOLOGY.

A CONVICT’S RESEARCHES

Before Lord Guthrie in the High Court at Glasgow, two men of respectable appearauce named Johu Thomson and Robert O’Neil, were charged with stealing a jacket Isom a pawnbroker’s sale room in Bedford Street, on October 21st. Thomson admitted the charge, and O’Neil was convicted by a majority of the jury. Asked by Lord Guthrie if he had anything to say, Thomson addressed the Court at great length. He said that when last released from prison, he began business as a tailor and dealer in Bridgeton, and his premises became a sort of released prisoners’ rendezvous. There were few prisoners came out of Peterhead but visited his shop. He carried the business on until August last, and then got work in Clydebank, where he remained until two hours prior to his arrest. In relerence to the theft, prisoner described it as a trivial, trashy, despicable act, which he ascribed to want of sleep and too much strong drink. He had had nine previous convictious, and five sentences of penal servitude in succession. Pie studied criminal reformation, and had read all the works on the subject.' It was his opinion that long days in the cell were not a cure, and long periods of imprisonment were not reformatory. On the other hand, he found that men who had been in prison and undergone flogging never committed another offence, and never returned to prison. The act to which he had pleaded guilty was not done oi his Iree will, but was an act of sub-consciousness. In closing, prisoner expressed the hope that the Court would not be so unforgiving as to let him lose this, his last chance. His Lordship said that he had considered all that prisoner had said, and also had seen evidence of what he had been doing in prison in the way ot certain writings that showed decided mechanical ingenuity, but he was afraid that was a vefy double-edged view. Prisoner’s present position was due to drink, which originally took him there and kept him there for 23 years, and into which he fell whenever he got out again, lie was 51 years of age, and he had about 30 years ol sentences, and must have been about 23 years in prison. In the ordinary course he should have 10 years’ imprisonment, but His Lordship would make it five years’ penal servitude instead. Addressing O’Neil, Lord Guthrie said his record was a very bad one, and he would repeal his previous sentence of five years’ penal servitude.