Prison Reform in Holland.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 182, 11 December 1886, Page 5

Prison Reform in Holland.

Hollvnd hag mado irnpoitant .sttides in pri?on reform. She has tak m a prominent pofaition in the extension of the cellular fy?Lorn. It has boon obsem i"« Holland as elsewhere, that evcu tha d Jiyjttit industry of prisoners, if carried on mi vhwo dally association with comrades >n ciiiie, is m great degree insutricient to prevent many of the worst results of corrupt communications, and at the same tim \ lack* ihal influence, both penal and solitary, whi n h total .separation from wicked comrades can alone secure. A series of well constructed, weiiadruinistered cellular pmon-s has been gradually introduced amonu the penal establishments. Sines the first of this month there will ba in use '< eleven of this description --seven larger and four smaller. The foirner v. ill include the spactoua and beautifully-"ifua<ed circular prison which, from it-< per iliar form, it.H huge dome, and its commanding position, is so conspicuous an object fiom fho vicinity of the railway fetation ati Ainhem, and v/nich has already acquired tho local popular designation of " J'ha Panorama." ft in an interesting and costly novnlfy in prison architecture. Another of the now ceiJular prisons, and which hns already been in operation for about two years, is that of Gioniugen, which is cruciform in plan Its cells, both ordinary and special, aie unusually large, and must have cost such a sum of raony for construction as either to indicate a wealthy nation or a Government and people peculiarly penetvited with the conviction of the penal and reformatory efficacy of rigidly separate- imprisonment. Some of the Groningen cells ti.r the uso of single invalid prisoners and for culpable debtors (who are also, and with advantage, punished in Holland with c C pira r e confinement instead of in jovial association with others, as in English gaol?) aro twenty feet long, twelve feet high, and too feet in breadth. Such constructio 1, with good masonry, implies indeed a libcal outlay for thQ object in view. However, the practical effects and morita of penal separation have long but steadily boen growing in favour with f ho Dutch people. They first mado tiinl ol ono or two such establishments, as nt Amsterdam and Utrecht, and havo since gradually increased the number. They adopted two jeai-h aa a maximum period for cellular prp nation (a^ in English local gaols at present). Moanwhile they retained in the nnjoiify of prisons the old system of n^<-oiation, botb in labour by day and in common sleeping rooms at night. This objocHnruible class of establishment will still continue to exist in some of the smaller towns of Holland, with their local gaols and lock-up-. -"London Times."