HABITUAL CRIMINALS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 106, 12 August 1910, Page 5

HABITUAL CRIMINALS.

"NO REFORMATORY TREATMENT WHATEVER." " By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Thursday. Speaking on the prison reiorm scheme the Rev. E. C. Budd, local gaol chaplain, expressed himself in entire Agreement with the ciffort towards the better classif cation of prisoners and stated mat the construction of prison buildings and the inadequate supervision had Deen largely responiible for want of classification in the past. Speaking of the proposal to lnwoauce the principle of indeterminate sentences to young and first' offenders, Mr. Budd said he emphatically protested against this. It is no breach bt confidence to say, he -continued, that the Habitual Criminals and Offenders Act is being administered most unsatisfactorily. There are two outstanding features in this law. One is that a habitual criminal shall, after serving a sentence, be sent to a reformatory prison for reformatory treatment, and the other that he shall not be released until it is clearly proved that he is a changed man and no longer a menace to society. Both these principles are being , completely ignored. The "habituals" receive no reformatory treatment whatever, and their release does not depend upon their reformation but upon their importunity or outside influences, or a promise to leave the Dominion.