There are no party discords on the Criminal Justice Bill.
The charge of " coddling criminals " which has been heard outside found very little echo in the debate on the Second Reading. Controversy for the most part centred on two issues. The first was the abolition of flogging. Mr. Quintin Hogg, in a highly successful maiden speech, pointed out that the recent Commission on the subject had, in framing its report, rejected the unanimous opinion of the King's Bench Judges. The case for abolition was' presented with all his usual persuasiveness by the Attorney-General, who showed that in Scotland, where the power to inflict corporal punish- ment does not exist, crimes, of violence had diminished more rapidly than in England. The second matter of dispute was the proposal to confer. upon Courts of Summary Jurisdiction the right to give Borstal sentences. The effect, as Mr. Pethick-Lawrence emphasised, must be greatly to increase the number of inmates of these institutions. Several members are chary of conferring upon lay magistrates the power to incarcerate young men for three years, particularly in view of the change which the Bill proposes in the grounds upon .which a sentence may be given. As the law now stands, it is necessary for the. Court to be satisfied that Borstal treatment is expedient by reason of the offender's criminal habits or tendencies or association with ,persons of bad character." In future, if the Bill passes in its present form, Borstal treatment may be ordered merely because the magistrates think that his • €' character- or habits make it advisable.
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