§ Bill read 3a, (according to Order), with the Amendments; a further Amendment made.
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THE BISHOP OF OXFORD moved the insertion of the following after Clause 5:—
So much of the said first-recited Act as provides that no youthful offender shall be directed to be sent to any reformatory school by any court, judge, sheriff, or magistrate, until after the expiration of his sentence, nor unless he shall be sentenced to a punishment of imprisonment for fourteen days at the least, shall be and is hereby repealed; and it shall henceforth be lawful for any such court, judge, sheriff, or magistrate, having authority under the said recited Act,
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or this Act, to direct any such youthful offender to be sent to and detained in any reformatory school, to mitigate or commute any sentence of imprisonment which may be passed on any such offender, so far as relates to the actual confinement of such offender in a common prison or house of correction, if in the exercise of their or his discretion it shall appear expedient so to do; and, in lieu thereof, it shall be lawful for such court, judge, sheriff, or magistrate, to direct such offender to be sent to and detained in a reformatory school according to the provisions of the said recited Act and this Act, as well during all or any part of the term of such sentence as for any further period not less than or exceeding the limits prescribed by the said Act.
The right rev. Prelate said, this clause had been thrown out in another place, but by a thin House. He thought it should be left to the discretion of the committing magistrate, whether imprisonment should be a preliminary to a reformatory, as it was obvious that, of the two classes of juvenile offenders, while a short term of imprisonment might be beneficial to the hardened criminal, it would only do harm to those who had been apprehended probably for a first offence, and would be contaminated by even a temporary contact with older criminals. He, therefore, begged to move the insertion of the clause.
§ LORD RAVENSWORTHsaid, the question of reformatories had scarcely been yet settled by the State. When the public sentiment became strong on the subject, the Government took the matter into their hands. Legislation on the subject, however, did not become perfect all at once; it did not spring, like Minerva, from the head of Jove. Accordingly changes had already been made, and others would doubtless yet be called for. He thought the Bill a very good one as it stood, and as the clause had been thrown out in the other House, he was averse to the right rev. Prelate's proposal. He would, however, assent to the proposed clause, with an addendum in the shape of a proviso, "provided that such offenders shall be under the age of twelve years."
After some conversation, the purport of which could not be heard,
§ On Question, their Lordships divided:—Content 53: Not-Content 17: Majority 36.
§ Clause agreed to: Bill passed, and sent to the Commons.