THE TREATMENT OF YOUNG CRIMINALS.
[To THE EDITOR OF TUB "SPECTATOR.") Sin,—May I crave the courtesy of the Spectator in order to call attention to the work of the London Prison Visitors Association, which was founded some months ago through the efforts of Mr. Ruggles Brise, the Chairman of the Prison Commission? The Association is intended to deal with young criminals between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one, and, with this object the members of the Executive Committee have been officially authorised to visit Pentonville, Wands- worth, and Wormwood Scrubbs Prisons, where they personally interview prisoners who have been selected, after consultation with the prison authorities, as suitable cases. Every available detail is ascertained about each case, and the ground is pre- pared for their treatment on release. After discharge the ex- prisoner is taken in hand by some member of the Associa- tion, who endeavours to obtain a good influence over him and to help him back to honest habits of life and work by every possible means. The Association has also the surveillance of all the lads discharged from the "special class" at Bedford Prison, where a limited number from those who have been sentenced in the London district to a year's hard labour or over have for some time been subject to the same special discipline and training as will be extended to a more numerous body next year at Borstal. The details of the Borstal scheme can be seen in the recent Report of the Prison Commis- sioners. The results so far achieved justify us, I think, in making a public appeal. We want money-2200 would go a long way—we want the sympathy of employers of Labour, but., above 'a]l, we want workers. The work of surveillance need not be arduous—" one man one case" would be the ideal— though it requires earnestness and tact, and persistence in the face of disappointments. But we believe that it is by the personal influence of the individual that these young criminals can most successfully be saved from a career which leads almost inevitably through a series of sentences to the social rain of penal servitude. I shall be only too happy to answer any inquiries that may be addressed to me.—I am, Sir, &c., W. HALDANE PORTER, Chairman of the Executive Committee. 22few Square, Lincoln's Inn, W.C.
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