Prisons of To-day Persons of a pacific temperament might in
these troubled days be disposed to view with favour a temporary seclusion behind the walls of Dartmoor Prison, and that impulse would be stimulated rather than otherwise by the report of the Prison Commissioners published on Wednesday. Though the report deals, properly speaking, with 1936, in which year the number of male prisoners was five thousand less than in the year preceding, reference is made to reforms of later date, in particular to the extension of earning schemes to all convict prisons. Though the average earnings are small—about Is. 6d. a week—the expenditure of that amount at the newly- established prison canteens gives a quite disproportionate satisfaction, and the interesting observation is made by the Commissioners that since earnings are based on results prisoners themselves look after the quantity of output, leaving the instructors free to concentrate on quality. Comments on changes at the women's prison at Holloway, notably the abolition of unsightly prison uniforms and the segregation of the younger prisoners in a new wing, with gardens for them to work at, indicate that humaner treatment, so far from being a concession to sentimentalists, is of the highest value in relation both to discipline and to ultimate reformation. Unfortunately increased expenditure on armaments must inevitably postpone one urgently needed reform, the erection of three or four new prisons in suitable surroundings to take the place of Certain gaols completely obsolete in the light of modern standards.
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