THE NAPIER GAOL.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 129, 8 April 1879, Page 2

THE NAPIER GAOL.

[Daily Telegraph.]

At the present time, the Napier Gaol contains forty-four prisoners, for the accommodation of whom there are twelve large and two small cells. Amongst the forty-four are three young boys, and these are locked up in the female ward at night. This ward contains three cells and a day loom, There are no female prisoners, The case was very different last year when there were over sixty male prisoners and six females. All the wards were filled, and the high had to sleep in the passages. To what extent prison discipline could have been made of a reformatory character under these circumstances we may leave our readers to judge. Under any circumstances, however, a gaol m which the prisoners cannot bo classified is no place for mere children such as the three small boys now incarcerated at Napier. Any sudden influx of prisoners would make it necessary that those boys should be herded with the men, and it is a disgrace to the colony that such should have to be the case, itli the not too nice discrimination that is shown in the selection of emigrants at home and with the inefficient prison arrangements in the colony, it may almost; be said tliafc we are laying the surest foundation for a future criminal population, With human nature such as i\e find it, there must needs be a certain proportion of juvenile offenders, and youthful waifs and otrays of society for whom provisions of some sort must be made. It is simply disgraceful that the only provision we can find for them here is the common gaol, from whence they must issue with worse characters than they had on being convicted. If in the enjoyment of perfect liberty it has come down to us as a tvuism (t evil coinnuinications corrupt good manners," how much nioiG so must it bs trus in tho caso whero thero is no opportunity of communicating with anything else but what is evil 1 The very gravest responsibility, therefore rests with our magistrates in their dealings with young ciiminala and vagrants. One of the three small boys of whom we \ have spoken has been sentenced to six months' imprisonment for petty larceny. His parents are respectabie, but the boy is incorrigible, and it was as far as possible to save him from himself that he was sent to gaol. The young prisoner is a blight intelligent boy, who, under proper ti'linillg, would most probably become a useful member of the community. His home training has'proved a failure; the question is into what will he develop after a course of gaol discipline 1 The obvious place for him was a reformatory or training ship, What is urgently needed is a central reformatory to which such boys could be sent, where they could be taught useful trades, or drafted to training ships according to the bent of their desires. It is as useless from a reformatory point of view to compel boys to become sailors, if they have no natural liking for the sea, as it is to send them to gaol where they learn nothing, The constant desertions from the training ships offer an example of the truth of what wo state. At the expiration of their term of. service those boys are thrown back on society with such a hatred for ships that they will never go an board of one again. ■ A central colonial reformatory would, obviate any, mistake of this kind, and boys would be trained according to their temperament,