HABITUAL CRIMINALS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 306, 20 May 1911, Page 2

HABITUAL CRIMINALS.

NEW ACT A DETERRENT TO I CRIME. By Telegraph.—Press Association. ' Wellington, Friday. Speaking of the operation of the | Crimes Amendment Act, the Chief Justice, president of the Prisons Board, said that of 31 prisoners who had made application twelve would be recommended for release on probation. He said almost all the applicants had been seen personally in gaol at New Plymouth, where at present all the prisoners of that class were confined. There i was no doubt the Act was a great deterrent, and most of the prisoners were! trying hard to earn release. If they' | worked hard and behaved themselves they received sixpence a day pocket money. Some were saving it and others expending the money in books, table luxuries, etc. It was obviously very difficult for old offenders to cast aside all bad habits in a few months, but in the case of younger men there was & greater possibility; in some cases, too, it was evident the criminal taint was hereditary, and the board had found many instances in which more than one member of a family had adopted a career of a crime. Generally speaking, the Act appeared to justify its existence, and when the prison farm was established its possibilities would be greatly increased.