SHORT TERMS IN PRISON.

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XLV, Issue 3189, 31 January 1928, Page 4

SHORT TERMS IN PRISON.

The conclusion that short terms of

imprisonment are injurious was expressed recently by the Home Secretary, Sir William Joynson-Hicks, in a statement on the prison system in Britain. He said the yearly number of persons sentenced to imprisonment was now between 54,000 and 55,000, and on any average day he was responsible for the custody of more than 10,000 persons. Many were persons sent to prison for comparatively small offences. The number of very short sentences was decreasing, but there were still about 14,600 persons committed every year for terms of one or two weeks. Those short sentences gave rise to a great deal of trouble in prison administration. He had frequently said that of fenders either ought to be dealt with by some method other than imprisonment, such as binding over, fines, or probation, or else, if none of those methods was appropriate, they should be given substantial sentences. Many of the short sentences were in default of payment of fines. Imprisonment as an ultimate penalty, if fines were not paid, could not be avoided; but every practicable method of securing payment of fines ought to be adopted before recourse was had to imprisonment. There had been an enormous decrease in recent years in the number of persons sent to prison in default of payment of fines. In 1899 the figure was 83,855, as compared with 14,542 in 1925. The provision allowing time for payment of fines had had a most beneficial effect, but he believed there was room for further decrease in the numbers. A sentence of less than a month, and probably less than three months, was useless in every way. It could not reform, and might degrade. More than

2000 lads under 21 were sent to prison every year. Matty were committed in default of payment of fines, or for comparatively trivial offences, and one could not help thinking that in some of those cases imprisonment might have been avoided if fuller use were made of the methods of probation and supervision. There were also lads in prison who had ,been convicted over and over again before the age of 21. Surely it would be better if some of those were sent, not to prison for * a few weeks or a few months, but to Borstal detention for a two-year course of discipline and training.