INDETERMINATE SENTENCES.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 11, 28 January 1905, Page 4 (Supplement)

INDETERMINATE SENTENCES.

The question of imposing indeterminate sentences on prisoners convicted of certain offences is one that has created some little interest in the past few years, and in view of the ineffectiveness of presentday methods in preventing a repetition of crime on the part of some classes of offenders against the law, it is one which at least deserves the attention of all thoughtful people. It is an indisputable fact that many a criminal, after serving a long term in prison, immediately on, or soon after liberation, commits the same offence again for which he was previously sentenced, and many people have remarked on the uselessness of letting such persons loose to again prey on society. There are also others, as for instance, sexual perverts, and those with inherited criminal tendencies, who constitute a continual menace to society at large, and who seem positively impelled to crime. Statistics of -.more than one civilised country show that the number of prisoners with previous convictions recorded against them is increasing, which points to the fact that in some cases the value of a definite term of sentence as a means of reformation is doubtful. A system of indeterminate sentences for such as these is claimed by those favourable to it as being the best means of dealing with the class of criminals who, no sooner are they liberated, than they again indulge their propensities for breaking the law of the land. A person convicted for an offence rendering the infliction of such a sentence advisable would, instead of receiving a definite term of punishment for one, five, or more years, be committed to prison for an indefinite period. During this period he would, as far as possible, be brought under reforming influences, being liberated only when there appeared to be a reasonable prospect of his turning over a new leaf, and refraining from the recommittal of crime. It would be n advisable, however, to make a complete eub-

stitution of such a system for the presen* method of definite sentences. In mwf of the lighter crimes, and with the I Her class of criminals, a dete rutin ate •er.tence is not only a sufficient punishment, but an effectual deterrent as well, it would, for instance, be an absurdity to deal ?n an indeterminate fashion with an effonder guilty of nothing more serioos than, nay, a theft committed while andor the in fluence of liquor, but in he case a serious offence, or one that wt»3 tion of a prisoner’s previous Nkjoit*' ** certainly would seem that the taining him until reformation is rt*° n “ ably established has much tps ef * rnm * 1 \* Those who have devoted most te the matter ncommena a partial substitution of sudi a.' system for our present methods, that is to say, that an indeterminate sentence should be imposed, only in cases where from the nature of the crime, or the prisoner’s past record, it appears be would be dangerous if allowed at large, unless it seemed clearly proved that reformation has been effected. The American Courts have the records of the career of a female criminal, who, with her seventy descendants, had cost the country a quarter of a million sterling. Ordinary punishments are useless to restrain such people, and it would appear obvious that a system of punishment and reformation combined would in such cases go far towards the betterment of the country, not only in cash, but in morals. Two or three prisons already exist in America where indeterminate sentences are dealt with, and it is claimed that of those detained there, and subjected to reformative influences, by far the majority turn out, on liberation, to be useful members of society again. It is well worth the consideration of Parliament whether such a system could not be brought into operation in New Zealand, .not substituted for our present system but rather made alternative with it.