Juvenile Offenders

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 318, 31 March 1928, Page 12

Juvenile Offenders

MEANING OF PROBATION • Making Good Citizens BOYS will be boys, and everyone likes a healthy highspirited boy, but sometimes high spirits effervesce and bubble over into misdirected channels, and the boy who should be a boy becomes known as a juvenile delinquent. The proper method of dealing with such juvenile delinquents is exercising the minds of many social workers in New Zealand, and a number of institutions have come into being, which have the welfare of every youth at heart.

“PROBATION for juvenile offenders was the subject of an interesting address given in Christchurch by Mr. G. M. Silver, representing the Prisons Department! Dealing with ex-inmates of the Borstal Reformatory, he said a boy suddenly released from control to liberty might overbalance were it not for the oversight and encouragement extended to him on his release. It was in this oversight, that there was a great opportunity for community service to assist the lad to rehabilitate himself. The teaching, training and kindly influences attempted in the Borstal Institute could be of little avail unless the helping hand was continued after the inmate’s release. Public Opinion Changes Mr. Silver referred to the change in public opinion regarding juvenile delinquents, as shown by the increasing use of probation in Europe. He quoted from what has been described as the most notable official report dealing with the treatment of juvenile offenders. This report stated that there could be no argument as to the main object in view, namely, to prevent future derelections, and to restore the offender to normal standards of citizenship. They had to be taught that wrong-doing is followed by unpleasant consequences, but the most attention had to be devoted to the vital question of their future welfare. The community, as well as the individual, had to be considered, and the Court had to pay some regard to the feelings of the : average citizen on the subject of the law-breaker. The View of the Citizen

A citizen who had suffered at the hands of a law-breaker might consider that punishment is the best way to deter the offender and others like him, and that probation will weaken the healthy fear of breaking the law which ought to exist in the minds of all. The report continued that probation must not be regarded by the

“ cxi uraii. offender as a form of “let off,” and tie must be made to realise that probation is strictly a period of trial, and that if he does not realise that he is on trial he will be deprived of his liberty. Community Service The speaker, after dealing with the work of a probation officer, said the officers could not give the necessary supervision to 60 to 100 cases and voluntary social workers were needed to co-operate with the officers in the intensive work that made probation real. Part of his work was to secure men of goodwill and good sense, who will appreciate being given the opportunity of acting as counsellor and friend to the probationer, and so save him for the community. The success of probation work depended largely on being able to keep a lad at work, and his department attempted to secure the help of those trusted and respected in the business community, whose interest in the probationer would guarantee him being given an opportunity to prove his worth when given the chance. At the present time they had I*lo men of this calibre on 22 voluntary probation committees in the cities and towns of New Zealand, and in each case the local magistrate was chairman. Probation Only Passing Phase Mr. Silver said it was too early to talk of results, as the scheme would take time to develop aud perfect, and he suggested that those interested in the guarding of young manhood should remember that last year 243 probationers were between 15 and 21 years of age. The probation officer was only a passing agent in a probationer’s life, not a permanent one, and he should try to put his charges in touch with such permanent social and religious influences as are appropriate to their individual needs, in the hope that they will continue to influence the probationer’s life long after the probationary period has expired.