COMMISSION ON PRISONS.

15

A—No. 12

tho fact that although " Tho Neglected and Criminal Children Act, 1867," provides for the establishment of reformatories for juvenile offenders, its provisions are only permissive ; whereas it seems clear that there is no matter connected with the administration of Criminal Justice so imminently important, and the urgent necessity for which will less bear to bo trifled with, than the establishment of such institutions; and if it should bo deemed impolitic to oblige each Province at once to set about the foundation of a reformatory for itself, it would at least be desirable in the meantime for the General Government to establish one or two in central places, and take power to charge the Provinces in respect of the young convicts sent out of them to such establishments. Wo understand that a reformatory school has already been established in the Province of Otago, which probably may be made useful for the neighbouring Provinces, but it can scarcely provide, oven for a short period, for the wants of the whole Colony.

Reformatories

lI.—EXISTING- PRISONS, THEIR SUFFICIENCY, &c. 11. "Wo have next to consider the sufficiency of the existing prisons, their management and discipline, for the purpose of attaining the true ends of a proper penal system. "With respect to position, it appears that most of the prisons of the Colony are convenient]}! situated, Lyttclton and Picton Gaols being the most striking exceptions. Almost all of them are in salubrious localities ; and the health of the prisoners generally is remarkably good. But the accommodation in every one of them, except Napier Gaol, is more or less insufficient, even for the present requirements of the Colony, and does not admit of any proper system 'or separation and classification or hard labour in prison. The plan of construction is in no case convenient for separation or for surveillance, Dunedin Gaol especially being remarkable for extreme faultiness in these respects. The ventilation of all the gaols, and the supply of air in them, would be quite inadequate if the penalservitude and hard-labour men were to spend the daytime in the prisons. It appears that most of the gaols are, to a greater or less extent, insecure in respect of construction ; and it seems probable that the paucity of the attempts to escape in recent years, to which our attention has been called, as compared with their frequency in former times, is attributable rather to the lenity of treatment and the incitement to good conduct created by the recent practice of granting fixed remissions, than to the physical means of security afforded by construction, or to increased surveillance. In Auckland Gaol, the sudden reduction of the staff of officers recently effected, causing «i most unjustifiable amount of overwork to those who remained, must have most materially added to the insecurity of that prison. As to juvenile offenders there does not appear to bo any systematic separation from other convicts in any of the gaols of the Colony ; though, in most cases, efforts are made by the gaolers in that direction. Prisoners waiting for trial are not, it would seem, nor can they practically be, kept separate from convicts in some of the gaols. In most of the gaols the provision made for the accommodation of the officers is altogether insufficient. "With respect to labour done by convicts the unanimous testimony of the witnesses proves that it is neither severe nor irksome ; that it is not substantially felt by the prisoners; and that it has no deterrent influence upon them. The habit of permitting prisoners to work in the streets of the towns in which the gaols are situated, is admitted by almost all the witnesses on the subject to be most objectionable, as regards both the prisoners and the public ; and such work is by no means so irksome as the same amount of labour would be within the precincts of the prison.* The obvious means'also, which it affords to the prisoners for communication with their friends, and for receiving indulgences, are apparently often taken advantage of ; and the absence of any law making it punishable for persons to hold communication with or to give supplies to prisoners working in the streets or roads, makes it difficult to prevent such mischievous interferences with prison discipline. On the other hand, great criminals by this practice become objects of curiosity and subjects of exhibition to the public, whereby much disturbance is necessarily created in the minds of the prisoners themselves, and a most unwholesome familiarity is engendered in the public, and especially in the younger members of it, with the persons, deeds, and characters of those whe ought to be put out of the sight of society altogether. The general moral effect of the present mode of treatment without classification or separation is almost without an exception or modification, described by the witnesses to be very bad. The warden of the Wellington gaol (Head) speaks of the system as one of "contamination without reformation ;" and says that conspiracies to escajse and murder, and to commit robberies have been concocted in the gaol ; while one of the medical attendants (Gkace) declares that " self-abuse is frightfully prevalent in that gaol, and that comparatively decent men fall into the habit and probably never lose it;" One of the clergymen who attends the Lyttelton Gaol (Knowt/es), speaks of many ascertained cases of demoralization from promiscuous association ; and two striking instances are mentioned in the Dunedin evidence, where comparatively innocent persons after being instructed in crime by old offenders in prison, have on their enlargement proceeded without delay to the commission of grave offences. It appears that in all the prisons the oldest, most hardened, and reckless offenders are looked up to as heroes and examples by the mass of the prisoners; and probably the amount of actual mischief which is attributable to nearly unrestrained communication in prison is not less than might have been expected a priori. The punishments inflicted and the treatment in the gaols seem to have even less effect upon the women than on the men, and the same women are constantly returning to the gaol after discharge. With regard to the matter of rations and indulgences, we have already had occasion to show the want of uniformity existing in the prisons of the Colony as now regulated. The extreme rations (in respect of amplitude) would seem to be unnecessarily abundant, while it would appear that in some prisons at all events, the second-class ration is scarcely sufficient. The granting or withholding the indulgences of tobacco, and tea and sugar, do not seem at present to be used as efficient means of prison discipline; but they apparently create very substantial differences in respect of severity of treatment between the prisoners in one gaol and those in others. * The lion. Colonel Peacocke does not altogether agree -with, the other Commissioners on this subject.

f Position, aeeora--1 mtidation, construction. 3 L

• Security. t ■ '.

Separation.

Labour.

Working in streets.

Moral effects of present system.

Rations.

Indulgences.