§ Sir A. Wilsonasked the Home Secretary whether and, if so, when it is proposed to give legislative effect to the recommendations of the persistent offenders' committee, made seven years ago, to enable courts to pass sentences of detention other than imprisonment on persons requiring medical treatment who are not certifiably insane or mentally defective?
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§ Sir S. HoareThe committee recommended that there should be attached to one of the prisons a medical psychologist to carry out psychological treatment in selected cases; and effect has been given to this recommendation. The committee also suggested that for some persistent offenders a sentence of prolonged detention might be preferable to a sentence of penal servitude because the offender is of feeble character and mentality, and detention is desirable for the care and control of the offender as well as for the protection of the public. The question of sentences of detention for persistent offenders is one of the matters I hope to deal with in legislation now under consideration.