THE STATS OF NEW ZEALAND PRISONS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1239, 4 January 1883, Page 2

THE STATS OF NEW ZEALAND PRISONS.

The following is taken from the Auckland “ Evening Star:”—

“ It is just about a hundred years since the great philanthropist, John Howard, published bi* notable book on “ The State of Prisons in England and Wale*,” and engaged in those arduous labours, both in England and on the Continent, which exposed the barbsrio cruelty of the penal systems of th* Old World, and led to the vast improvement of the treatment of criminal* and political prisoners. He showed that these “ dark places of the earth ’’ were full of disease, dirt, and unheard of suffering; and with an unselfish zeal, which has never been surpseeed in human annals, he devoted his life to the amelioration of the condition of the unfol innate wretches condemned to imprisonment in those damp and unwholesome dens. A hundred years of Christian civilisation, over progressing since that time, have brough t in more humane methods of treating society’s rebels and outcasts ; but there is still n inch room for improvement in our prison system, as worked in this Colony. The evil is not yet so great or flagrant, as to call for the stout heart and fearless pen of a Howard to lay bare its naked deformity ;

but that tkm la Wgsat need of reformstion is amply evidenced by recent revelation*. The exposure of the practice In Dunedin gaol, of inflicting prison punishments for breaches Of discipline—or rather of the gross abuse of this practice—came first with a shock upon the Colony, It seemed indeed incredible that, with all our free institutions—our trial i by jury, and our " harbeas corpus ” laws—it could be possible for prisoners to be kept in Confinement for months, and in some cases for years, after their term of sentence had expired, at the will of an irresponsible and

secret tribunal. But such things have been, and though they have not overtaken us " without our special wonder,” it is to be feared that the matter will be hushed up, and no serious attempt made to sweep the Attgoan stables. Certain it to, at all events, that the granting of a year’s leave of absence, with full salary, does not seem to be a partioularly effectiue way of expressing disapproval of the policy of the Dunedin gaoler.

Che Auckland Prison, in many respects the best conducted establishment of the kind in New Zealand, has also been shown to have Its faults. A fortnight ago a prisoner named Hooton, while suffering from delirium tremens, Was allowed to expire miserably in a prison cell; and though the coroner's jury who enquired into the circumstances attending his death did not see fit to append any rider to their veridict of •' Died from Sanjuinous serous apoplexy," there is room [or grave suspicion that the prisoner's death is directly chargeable to carelessness and want of supervision. No loubt he was himself responsible for the sad rendition in which he was at the time ; bnt Ming in that condition, it became an imwrative duty to watch over hia actions, and iee that he aid no harm to himself or others.

Instead of this being done, he was thrust into a cell beside other prisoners, and little or no attention paid to Him while in a state of dangerous delirium. To-day, from Christchurch, we have another death of a prisoner reported—this time not in the prison, but in the lock-up at the police-office; and again there is the shocking suspicion that the man Use been the victim of a pernicious system. A man named Massar, confined for drunkenness, dies in the police cell, and Dr. Syms, who is called in to attend him, attributes his death to “ chronic alcoholism, accelerated by the foul air of the lock-up cell.” The evidence of Dr. Syms, was to the the effect that the floor of the cell becomes saturated with excreta; that it is impossible, from its constraction, to clean it properly j and that on one occasion, after visitlag the cell, he vomited six times. Yet, tn this case also, there is no rider added by the coroner's jury, expressing disapproval of the system of Westing prisoners; and so the old story, we suppose, is to bo repeated over and over again, and men Who are unfortunate or weak enough to get drunk are to be jammed into foetid dens and quietly asphyxiated. This would do very well under the Spartan code ; but (while we do ntt wish to appear as the drunkard's apologist) we would urge, in the name of humanity, that Christian ethics Should rule us in our treatment of prisoners, and that their lives; should be “held as sacred as those of the most law-abiding. It is not Impossible, surely, to construct cells which shall at once be esc ure and healthy; nor is it a bard matter, a ven with the small staffs of officials in our jails, to exercise supervision over prisoners, and see that they have medical attendance when they require it. We trust, for the credit of the colony, which claims in many things to be in advance of Northern civilisation ; for the fair fame of the co unity of Howard, and for the sake of our boosted Christianity, that a full and search in. j enquiry will be made into the prison org.tnisations of New Zealand, and abuses eormcted with an unsparing hand wherever they are found to exist.