PRISON SYSTEM.

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19901, 2 June 1936, Page 6

PRISON SYSTEM.

The Controller-General of Prisons has taken the very unusual course of writing to :1 Wellington newspaper in reply to an anonymous correspondent who had mentioned that a. deputation had waited on the Minister of Justice urging an inquiry into prison conditions. The otficer gave the prison record of three men, though he did not state their names, and if public servants are going to do this sort of thing then the practice of holding a Department, or a Minister, responsible for shortcomings will quickly be discarded and the individual otficers will be freely criticised. The fact that the men con—cerned could, if a judge decided, be declared habitual crimi—nals, does not enter into the matter, but it may lead people to ask what refurmative value our prisons have when records such as these are possible. They may present the men in a bud light but they do not afford the State any reason to be proud of its prison system. The Mother Country, which is far ahead of most countries in dealing with lmvbreakers, has been able to (‘lose a number of prisons and to report a steadily decreasing number of prisoners. Possibly it would be to the bonclit of New Zealand if it. studied the methods in force there, particularly the use of probation for first offenders. It might, also, follow that lead in the matter of habitual criminals. and it could with advantage employ experts to examine these men physically and mentally. The statement made by the ControllerGeneral may have been intended to deprecate the views of the deputation, but actually it will serve to prompt questions regarding the prison system of the country. for the men referred to by the, officer may be to some extent what they are because of what they have been made by an antiquatod system.