IMPRISONMENT OF BOYS ON REMAND
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Mr. Cadogan has earned the gratitude of all those who care for the welfare of young delinquents by raising, on the adjournment, the question of the imprisonment of boys on remand.
The Departmental Committee on Young Offenders roundly condemned the practice of sending boys or girls to prison either on remand or under sentence, and it asked for the establishment of well-equipped observation centres where skilled doctors and social workers could study the individual delinquent, find out the causes of the crime, physical, social and psychological, and advise as to the best method of treatment.
There is unanimous agreement among all parties as to the need for this and other reforms recommended by the Committee. Its findings are moderate, its demands are modest. Yet more than four years have elapsed since its Report was published, and nothing has been done beyond recommendations to magistrates and certain administrative changes. A private member's Bill, promoted by the Howard League and incorporating many of the Committee's recom- mendations was introduced into the House by Mr. Rhys Davies, but we still await the official measure.
The Government has a chance here to introduce a great reform, which would stand to its credit in history after the Sunday Performances Bill is lost in the oblivion of time. It would have no opposition. The House of Lords would not seek to mutilate but to improve the Bill, and it would have a triumphal progress to the Statute Book. Why not ?
—I am, Sir, &c., CICELY M. CRAVEN (Hon. Sec.). The Howard League for Penal Reform, Parliament Mansions, Victoria Street, S.W. 1.
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