The Street Called Straight

NZ Truth, Issue 1189, 13 September 1928, Page 6

The Street Called Straight

UUMANITARIAN reforms .m ; prison administration are bearing fruit, and the boy in-New Zealand who goes "off the rails" for ,the first time' has a 100 to 3 chance of absorbing the lesson of the. "Street called Straight." '"' According to the annual report of the Controller-General of Prisons "the Borstal system is the most constructive and helpful plank m our penal system today." Is it not significant that, out of 1621 youths who passed through the Borstal institute at Invercargill m six years only 141. —8.7 per cent.-:— again came into conflict with the law and a considerable proportion of that 8.7 per cent, made a determined effort to go straight? ■ \. The "first step towards making good citizens out of first offenders is to remove the young delinquent from his bad environment and to place him amid helpful surroundings. •The second step is to provide ' ' supports ' '—those .strengthening props that will make it easier for him to keep the railjj even when the desire to do so.is.not so great. It is of course, necessary to place restrictions on liberty, and to remove as far as : possible the ; incentive and opportunity; wrongdoing. '" ; Those responsible for the administration of Borstal regulations m New Zealand have struck a chappy note when they rely on the remedial powers of work, and educational application to gain their ends. : Although "Iron bars do-not >i prison make," they leave a nasty impression on a first offending youth. Far better 'the open .spaces, ;; the healthy sporty and good solid toil for reforming the lost legion of young humanity. And Borstal is doing, this.