A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
IT appears that some of the glaring deficiencies in the prison system of' the country, brought to public notice by the recent report of a Select Committee of the House of Commons, are to be dealt with by the Prison Commissioners as and when may-be practically possible. The limitations are well under- stood. Several new prisons are badly needed; so are several hundred thousand new houses. But no one suggests that there should be no building except house-building. Factories, for example, have to be built. That, 'of course, makes the diffi- culty of building prisons even more acute. But it doesn't make it impossible. I am glad to see it stated that two new prisons and two new Borstal institutions are to be constructed. More will quite certainly be needed, for apart from the need to increase the number of prisons the need to replace some of the older existing ones is almost equally urgent. The Select Committee's report did not much criticise prison administra- tion. There is every reason to think it as good as it could well be under existing conditions. It is the conditions that are wrong and that must somehow be changed. If prison is to have a reformative effect there can be no locking men in cells for thirteen hours, and often much more, out of the twenty-four, and there can be no sleeping three in a cell. The difficulties, mainly financial, in the way of improvement are serious, but any "Sorry, but it can't be helped" attitude should be firmly discouraged. Of course the one right way to better things is to reduce crime and consequently the need for punishment. Meanwhile things must be dealt with as they are.
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