CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sta,—As a country J.P. and chairman of the Children's Court I read all your articles, and the letters of your corre- spondents on the subject of penalties and prison treatment in the hope of getting some guidance, but they seem to emanate from a different world. In my own court the cases with which we have to deal are those of simple country lads who do mis- chievous, dirty or cruel things which ought to be discouraged. The full court is almost entirely occupied with charges against motorists of all social classes, who are careless, dangerous and occasionally drunk. Nearly all our accused are first offenders. What course should we adopt ?
So far as the boys are concerned prison is of course out of the question, an approved school or transfer to another home obviously inappropriate, and a fine unsuitable and generally unenforceable, except against the parents, who in many cases are in no way to blame. I confess that I often think that a few strokes of the birch rod would be the best solution, but our modem penologists have rendered that impossible for us. So we fall back on binding over and the probation officer, and being an excellent fellow he may sometimes do some good, but the general feeling of the public and of the boys themselves is that they have got away with it. And if they repeat it, what then ?
Then for the motorists ? We are pretty stiff in the way of suspending licences, but where a reckless driver has caused a death or very serious -injuries it seems that the public and His Majesty's Judges consider that imprisonment is the only
proper penalty. And here I ask as a member of a prison visiting committee : Should these persons be sent to Wakefield, or tackled by the prison chaplain or taught to make boots ?-
Yours faithfully, F. H. PERCIVAL, Kimsbury House, Gloucester.
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