PRISON REFORM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 267, 21 April 1915, Page 7

PRISON REFORM.

MINISTER'S PROPOSALS. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, April 20. Interviewed by a representative of the Post, Mr. Hordman said that he believed more useful work was being done now by prisons than ever before in the history of the Dominion. The operations are being conducted on more systematic principles. Auckland prison was the convict establishment. The final wing was nearing completion. When the money was available, it was proposed to take steps to establish a separate institution for females, which, it was hoped, would enable the authorities to commence a satisfactory system of classification at that prison. There were nearly sixty prisoners at the new gaol at Waikerie, about ten miles from Te Awamutu. A wing to accommodate eighty prisoners would be completed within six months.

Regarding the Wellington Gaol, as soon as the building at Point Halswell was completed, the men would be moved out of town. That would mean one penal establishment in Wellington instead of three. One hundred and forty thousand trees had been planted at Halswell, and 90,000 more had yet to be put in during the coming winter. When the new prison near Templeton, in Canterbury, was completed, the South Island would have enough" prison accommodation for many years. When the war-clouds had rolled away, it was proposed to introduce legislation which would enable the Crown to release prisoners of good behaviour upon probation, and remedy any injustice which might arise from the imposition of unequal punishment. Tt would also be necessary for the State to take charge of the inebriates at present at Roto Roa and Pakatoa. If these institutions were controlled by the Government, it would insist upon all the inmates being employed in healthy and suitable occupations.