§ MR. DRUMMONDsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has considered the complaint addressed to him by the Visiting Magistrates of the House of Correction at Wands worth respecting the committal to their charge of old convicts from the Police Offices in London for short periods, instead of such convicts being committed for trial at the Old Bailey, and whether he proposes to take any steps to remedy the evil?
MR. HARDYsaid, with reference to the subject which was brought before the House by the hon. Member for West Surrey, it was not confined to this metropolis nor to the House of Correction, to which he alluded. There had been, he was sorry to say, a too general misinterpretation of a clause in the Criminal Justice Act which led to a great deal of abuse. The Act was intended to empower magistrates to deal summarily with cases of petty larceny or first offences; but it was applied by some magistrates to persons who had been previously convicted, not two or three, but many times. The magistrates committed these offenders sometimes for six months, sometimes for throe months, always for short periods, so that there was no power of bringing reformatory influences to bear upon them. There were other persons besides who, for petty offences, were sent to prison fifty or sixty times over for a week or ten days at a time; and the moment they were let out they began their vicious habits again. With respect to the intentions of the Secretary of State, he 340 might inform the hon. Gentleman that his right hon. Friend proposed to address a letter to the police magistrates to ascertain the course they pursued. By giving publicity to that letter they hoped to call the attention of the Magistrates of counties to the misinterpretation of the Act in question. If it was not possible to correct the evil otherwise, it would be necessary to proceed by way of legislation.