BRITISH PRISONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 November 1922, Page 5

BRITISH PRISONS.

SWEEPING CHANGES MADE. MORE HUMANE METHODS. rfy Telegraph.- Press Assn .—Copyright. London, October 28. The annual report of the Commissioners of Prisons states that sweeping changes are being effected in the prison system, including the substitution of ordinary hair-cutting for convict crops, the transfer from prison to prison in civilian clothes, no wires or bars between convicts and prisoners, improved, cell furniture, permission for prisoners to talk at work, the provision of more concerts, lectures, debates and dramatic entertainments, the supply of a weekly summary of news, and increased library facilities. The Commissioners deny that prisoners are pampered, saying that unless their minds are fed and exercised, they will be restored to the keen competition of the outside world torpid in mind and nerve, quite unfit to resume their place in society. Nevertheless the year’s record shows an increase in crime. The increased receptions into prison are attributed to the depression and other effects of the war. The Commissioners point out that more than half the increase is accounted for by the increase in debtor prisoners, chiefly for wife maintenance, and income-tax arrears. Many men will not maintain a wife, who, rightly or wrongly, is considered undeserving.