OF THE

COMMISSIONERS OF PRISONS

AND THE

DIRECTORS OF CONVICT PRISONS,

FOR THE

YEAR 1921-1922.

Prison Commission,

Home Office, July, 1922.

Sir,

WE have the honour to present our Report for the year ended 31st March, 1922.

We have resumed the practice (suspended during the war and subsequently for reasons of economy) of printing the special reports of the Medical Commissioner, the Chaplain Inspector, and the administrative Inspectors, as appendices. These are followed by some quotations from the reports of the governors, chaplains, and medical officers of the prisons, to which references are given in brackets. These extracts have not been chosen to support any particular view, but as remarks on points of general interest. The number of prisoners received under sentence was as follows:

*Of these prisoners the number who also received a sentence of Preventive Detention was: 51 in 1921-22, and 44 in 1920-21.

The past year, therefore, shows an increase over the year 1920-21 of 7,210 in the total number of persons received into prison under sentence.

The following table shows the daily average population for 1921-22 as compared with 1920-21. It will be seen that there has been an increase of 817 in the daily average in local prisons and of 267 in that of convict prisons. During the greater part of

(6770) Wt. 7384/57 1125 10/22 Harrow G. 79/40

A 2

the year there were about 400 male prisoners in local prisons and 300 in convict prisons who had been transferred to this country from Ireland. They were released early in 1922.

The next table gives a comparison between the total receptions into prison during the year under report and the corresponding numbers since the beginning of the present century.

The ratio per 100,000 of the population of the country for the periods mentioned in the foregoing table was as follows:

The number of receptions on conviction, both absolutely and relatively to population, are still much lower than they were for the five years ended 1913-14, both as regards convictions on indictment and summary convictions. The difference is 3,390, or 38 per cent., in convictions on indictment; and 108,266, or 72 per cent., in summary convictions.

The total number received this year after conviction on indictment is about the same as for the preceding year for both. sexes, viz. :-5,023 males and 369 females, as compared with 5,029 males and 389 females last year. As compared with the totals for this category for the pre-war years, 1913-14, the figures this year represent a reduction of 30 per cent, for males and 31 per cent. for females.

The receptions this year after summary conviction for indictable offences were 9,800 males and 1,547 females, as compared with 9,718 males and 1,606 females last year. The number received for non-indictable offences was 20,962 males and 9,425 females, as compared with 18,120 males and 9,054 females last year, or an increase of 15 and 4 per cent. respectively.

It would be unsafe to rely on the foregoing figures as an indication of what is likely to happen in the near future. Trade depression, and the other effects of the war which are still with us, coupled with the increase in prison population that has actually taken place, suggest that a further increase may be expected. On the other hand, despite a certain number of spectacular crimes which have attracted a good deal of public interest, there is no increase in convictions on indictment. Moreover, out of an increase of 7,210 in the total number of receptions into prison under sentence, no less than 4,063, or well over half, is accounted for by the increase of debtor prisoners; the remainder of the increase being accounted for under the heading of non-indictable (i.e., minor and trivial) offences. The figures, therefore, are not discouraging in the circumstances, and matters might reasonably have been expected to have been worse in the years following the war.

The debtor category, which shows so large an increase, is composed principally of persons committed for non-payment of Wife Maintenance, Bastardy Arrears, and Income Tax. The total number of debtors of all classes for the year under report was 9,267, as compared with 5,204 in 1920-21, and 2,819 in 1919-20. The increase among the debtors is due to unemployment and appears to be spread generally over the country. Most governors comment upon it and attribute the committals, generally speaking, to the men's inability to pay up arrears because they were out of work. Several governors also comment upon increases in the number of persons in the debtor category who are committed for non-payment of Income Tax. (See pages 43 and 44.)

The increase of receptions into prison for non-indictable. offences is attributed by governors to a large extent to inability to pay fines. Thus, both the main classes which make up the

increase in the total number of persons received into prison under sentence may be ascribed, chiefly, to the unemployment consequent on trade depression. (See pages 39, 40, 43.)

Nevertheless, the large number of persons committed for non-indictable offences, together with other indications, suggests that there is still room for lessening the number of committals to prison by such means as a bolder use of probation, and allowance of time in which to pay fines. (See pages 40-3, 45-6, 51.) Individual cases which have come to our knowledge support this view. Moreover, out of 15,674 persons who were committed in default of paying fines, no less than 13,472 had not been allowed by the Courts time in which to pay the fine imposed before committal to prison. In large numbers of these cases the issue of a warrant of immediate committal to prison was due to the fact that the offender had not a fixed address within the jurisdiction of the Court. Immediate committal cannot be necessary in all such cases. The law does not require it, for Section I of the Criminal Justice Administration Act does not deprive a Court of its general powers of " allowing time" under Section 7 of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879. Often an address is given which, though not within the jurisdiction of the Court, can readily be verified, and in such cases there can be little risk in allowing time.

The Secretary of State has recently addressed the following circular to all Magistrates on the subject:-

Sir,

The Committee on National Expenditure having drawn attention in their second interim Report (p. 81) to the large number of prisoners committed to prison in default of payment of their fines who make payment after reception in prison (5,088 out of a total of 13,404 in 1921), I am directed by the Secretary of State to say that he has reason to think that some misapprehension exists as to the powers of magistrates to allow time for payment of a fine. Section 1 of the Criminal Justice Administration Act requires time to be allowed in all cases unless there is some special reason to the contrary, one special reason being that a defendant has failed to satisfy the Court that he has a fixed abode within its jurisdiction; but when a defendant has failed to satisfy the Court of this, the Court is not thereby deprived of its general powers for "allowing time" which are expressly recognised by Section 7 of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879. The Secretary of State is well aware that some at least of the defendants who were committed to prison for non-payment of their fines and paid them soon after their committal, would not have done so had they not been committed, but when allowance has been made for this, he cannot but think that the power vested in Courts of Summary Jurisdiction for allowing defendants time. to pay fines has not been exercised so freely as the public interest demands, and he will be glad if your Bench will consider whether

some proportion of the present amount of public money expended on conveying prisoners to prison in default of payment of fines might not be saved by a more general use of the provisions of Section 7 of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879.

I am,

The Clerk to the Justices.

Sir,

Your obedient Servant,

(Signed) JOHN ANDERSON.

The following statement shows the total number of convicted prisoners under sentence of imprisonment who were in custody in local prisons on the 31st March last, and the principal offences for which they were convicted :—

Of those convicted on indictment, 575 males and 37 females had committed offences against the person, including 181 males and 8 females for bigamy; 139 males and 10 females were convicted for wounding, assault, &c., and 196 males for indecent assaults, rape, &c. 783 males and 7 females were convicted of house-breaking, burglary and kindred offences; 945 males and 79 females of larceny, embezzlement, false pretences, &c., and 80 males for forgery.

Of the summary convictions, the dominant offence was larceny and similar offences, viz.: -1,772 males and 289 females. The following account for the bulk of the remainder :-

A similar return of the offences of prisoners convicted summarily, prepared 20 years ago, when the total number of that category in custody was 7,456 males and 2,615 females, as compared with 3,617 males and 831 females last year, gives an interesting comparison of the composition of the prison population