HC Deb 29 June 1961 vol 643 cc861-3

Release of persons sentenced to borstal training.

45.—(1) A person sentenced to borstal training shall be detained in a borstal institution, and after his release therefrom shall be subject to supervision, in accordance with the following provisions of this section; subject, however, to the power of the Secretary of State under subsection (2) of the last preceding section to commune in certain cases the unexpired part of the term for which a person is liable to be so detained to a term of imprisonment.

(2) A person sentenced to borstal training shall be detained in a borstal institution for such period, not extending beyond two years after the date of his sentence, as the Prison Commissioners may determine, and shall then be released:

Provided that the Prison Commissioners shall not release any such person from a borstal institution before the expiration of six months from the date of his sentence unless required to do so by directions of the Secretary of State.

(3) A person shall, after his release from a borstal institution and until the expiration of two years from the date of his release, be under the supervision of such society or person as may be specified in a notice to be given to him by the Prison Commissioners on his release, and shall, while under that supervision, comply with such requirements as may be so specified:

Provided that the Prison Commissioners may at any time modify or cancel any of the said requirements or order that a person who is under supervision as aforesaid shall cease to be under supervision.

(4) If before the expiration of two years from the date of his release the Prison Commissioners are satisfied that a person who is under supervision after his release from a borstal institution under subsection (2) of this section has failed to comply with any requirement for the time being specified in the notice given to him under subsection (3) of this section, they may by order recall him to a borstal institution; and thereupon he shall be liable to be detained in the borstal institution until the expiration of two years from the date of his sentence, or the expiration of six months from the date of his being taken into custody under the order, whichever is the later, and, if at large, shall be deemed to be unlawfully at large:

Provided that—

  1. (a) any such order shall, at the expiration of two years from the date of his release, cease to have effect unless the person to whom it relates is then in custody there-under; and
  2. (b) the Prison Commissioners may at any time release a person who is detained in a borstal institution under this subsection; and the provisions of subsection (3) of this section and the preceding provisions of this subsection shall apply on his release under this paragraph as they apply in the case of his original release, except that the references to the period of two years from the date of his release shall be construed as references to the period of two years from the date of his original release.

(5) If any person while under supervision, or after his recall to a borstal institution, as aforesaid, or after being ordered to be returned to a borstal institution under section twelve of the Criminal Justice Act, 1961, is sentenced by a court in any part of Great Britain to corrective training or borstal training, his original sentence of borstal training shall cease to have effect.

(6) The Prison Commissioners in exercising their functions under this section shall consider any report made to them by a board of visitors on the advisability of releasing a person from a borstal institution.

Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.

Mr. MacColl

I would take this opportunity of expressing my pleasure that the Government have provided this very useful consolidation in the Schedule. Having myself met my Waterloo in Committee on the Bill, in trying to find my way around the Magistrates' Courts Act and the Criminal Justice Act, I am delighted to think that they are brought together in this form. I am sure that this will make it very much easier for all concerned in the future. I thank the Government.

Mr. Renton

I am obliged to the hon. Gentleman. I greatly appreciate the spirit with which the hon. Lady the Member for Leeds, South-East (Miss Bacon) and the hon. Gentleman have co-operated with us in getting these Lords Amendments agreed at this late hour of night.

Question put and agreed to.