§ Colonel DAYasked the Home Secretary if his attention has been drawn to the sentence of three years' imprisonment passed at the Worcester Quarte. Sessions, on the 5th July, on Michael Williams, aged 20 years, who pleaded guilty to office-breaking and stealing an article valued 2d.; and will he cause such sentence to be reconsidered with a view to clemency?
§ Sir W. JOYNSON-HICKSThe sentence was one, not of imprisonment, but of detention in a Borstal institution. Such a sentence is only passed if the Court be2346W satisfied that a young offender requires training on account of his criminal habits or tendencies, or his association with persons of bad character. Williams is not only reported to have marked criminal tendencies; he has committed a number of previous offences, for which he has been placed on probation or fined, or sent to prison for short terms. Borstal training was designed for such cases.