PRISON LABOUR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 24, 20 May 1914, Page 4

PRISON LABOUR.

One pressing social need is a better use of prison labour, for the benefit of the culprit, the dependents, and society, is the view of Wellington’s; evening paper. The writer goes on to say: The present scheme is not as thoughtless as it was some tears ago, but it is still very unscientific; it is not radically different from the old order of profitless punishment, in the economic sense. As the system now stands, a criminal’s wife and children and the general public may be more punished than the offender by his imprisonment. Nominally his labour is “hard.” How “hard” P What is the profit of it? Before going to gaol the culprit was a burden on society, and when he is caught, most of weight continues to go on the overloaded back of the public. Also, so far as the maintenance of the man’s wife and family is concerned, the prisoner is virtually cte^id; the gaol is practically a grave. Why should not the prisoners’ brawn and brain be used to good purpose ? Why add to the free people’s cost of living by a wicked waste of imprisoned strength? There is much enthusiasm for a harnessing of the wild waters of the mountains; it would he well to have some of • that zeal diverted to a proper harnessing of tame prisoners.