PRISON REFORM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 159, 14 October 1910, Page 7

PRISON REFORM.

A REMARKABLE ARTICLE. GREATER SEVERITY URGED. A rather remarkable contributed article appears in a recent issue of a northern contemporary dealing with prison reform. The writer is an exprisoner, who admits having served two sentences in gaol, the offences which he expiated not being indicated. The writer refers to the recent pronouncement by the Minister for Justice with regard to the probable inauguration of a new and more considerate regime as regards the treatment of prisoners. While giving tht Minister credit for his proposed' schemes of reform, which he admits are actuated by a desire for the betterment of prisoners in general, he affirms that the Minister and his advisers! have entirely misconceived the causes of crime, the effect of prison life o:. ; the moral nature of the prisoner, and the particular influences from which reformation may be expected to arise. In reference to vagrants, who generally constitute a considerable proportion 01 the inmates of most of our larger prisons, the writer contends that the average wastrel only works for two or three months, and then has a tired fit. He makes his way to the nearest town, and speedily dissipates his earnings. He then degenerates into an idle, purposeless mode of living, associates with evil characters, and when all else fails he thinks, "I'll now go up 'to the hill' for a bit.'Gaol is to him but a refuge, and while there he has clean clothes, wholesomb food, a warm bed, and no hard work. His only want is his pint of beer. What can be done, asks the writer, with this type of degenerate? Consider his chaacteristics. Past early manhood, without family ties and influences, his life been nomadic for years, with every physical equipment for work except the inclination, he is nothing but an idle, dissolute wastrel. A sponger on the unfortunate class, a man whose ever} word is uttered with an oath, whose • every expression is an obscenity. There remains but one method, in; the writer's opinion, by which he maj be reached and which would tend to relieve the country of his mainten-, ance for two or three years of his existence; and that method is through fear. Gaol being to him, at present, & restful experience, it should, in future, be to him—Hell! A place of sorrow and wailing, which he would quit with an earnest resolution never to return to such misery. A gaol should be a place of real suffering, painful to the memory, terrible to the imagination. A life stern and Spartan in its discipline should bt enforced. A return to it should be con-' templated with horror. The conclusion! which this ex-prisoner arrives at is, that if an offender will not recognise thai he ought to do right because it is right, then he must be taught that it wiser toj refrain from wrong, because it is ex-1 pedient. But the lesson of expediency! must be pressed home by a wearying task of hard labor with hard fare ana irksome seclusion which will be more beneficial than the present system 01 long sentences and lax conditions of con-. finement.

Sentences are now inflicted, as judges are a'.ways careful to state, for the pro- : tection of society and as a warning to j others. The youthful offender enters; prison with feeling* of shame, bitter re-; urets and pangs of remorse. But, living as he does in an atmosphere of criminal j associations and villainy, his ears pol-j luted with filthy language, is it anyj wonder that the horror of himself which • he originally felt should soon vanish? >He daily contemplates roguery, and, consciouslv or unconsciously, he imbibes its vitiating draughts. A gaol of a'.l places : should protect him from this danger. It, should keep alive the first feelings of j horror, of shame, and of regret. I Every prisoner who cherishes the hope) that he will do better when he gets an- : other chance, will support the plea for ( shorter sentences and more rigorous con-, ditio-ns. Punish offenders with a just measure of retribution for their own'; wrongs and not add an unjust measure! in the vain hope of deterring others. 1 Make the sentences short and sharp, the; conditions rigorous and exacting, the! discipline strict and the work onerous.! Let each privilege be fairly earned, and only granted as" a reward for special work "and conduct. If one prisoner honestly lamenting his crime undergoes his sentence in sighs and tears and inward oroans, so much the better. Such a course is preferable to transferring him to a more genial clime, or placing him at light, easy work which is not work at aN, supplying him with palatable food and medical comforts, and when restored I to perfect health furnishing him with an t outfit, defraying the cost of passage |and sending'him forth to prey on soI ciety in another land.