Chapter XVII).

So far as non-criminal vagrancy is concerned, active steps have lately been taken by the Local Government Board with a view of introducing greater uniformity in the administration of the Casual Wards, at least so far as the Metropolis is concerned. An order was issued in November 1911 vesting the control and management of the Casual Wards in the Metropolitan Asylums Board. The Board appointed a special Committee to give effect to the Order, and at once took steps to provide for the uniformity of all the Casual Wards committed to their charge, which had hitherto been administered by the separate local Boards of Guardians. The results have been very remarkable. Of the twenty-eight casual wards available on the 31st March, 1912, only six remained in use by the end of 1919, the average number of inmates accommodated on a given day at the end of the years named having fallen from 1,114 to 82 during the period. The comparative accommodation available is shown in the following table:--

--------------+----------------+----------------+---------------- | 31 Mar., 1912. | 31 Dec., 1913. | 1 Jan., 1917. --------------+----------------+----------------+---------------- Men | 1,136 | 627 | 286 Women | 402 | 177 | 92 Double Beds | 110 | 57 | 28 --------------+----------------+----------------+---------------- Total | 1,648 | 861 | 406 --------------+----------------+----------------+----------------

The Metropolitan Asylums Board, in their report for 1912, had no hesitation in expressing the view that the decline of casual pauperism in London is due to the unification of the Casual Ward Authorities in the treatment of London as a homogeneous whole under an absolutely centralized system. The Report confirms the conclusions arrived at by the Committee of 1904 with regard to classification and treatment. They report as follows:--"First there is the bonâ fide working man in search of work, and we have no reason to doubt the estimates which placed the proportion of this class at under 3 per cent. of the whole. Secondly, come those who undertake casual labour for a short time, but will not or cannot undertake continued work. This type soon degenerates into the habitual vagrant unless deterred, as we hope under present conditions he is being, from the continual frequenting of casual wards. The third class is the 'work-shy' or habitual vagrant who professes to look for work but has no desire to find it. Amongst this number are many who although strong and able-bodied, deliberately embark upon a career of idleness and of alternation between casual ward and prison at such an early age as twenty years. They are often qualified and able to work and have been assisted over and over again until they are given up as hopeless and their papers marked 'prefers to walk the streets.' Further reference is made to this class of habitual vagrants in the section discussing the question of punishments, where it is pointed out that neither casual ward nor prison exercises the slightest punitive or deterrent effect. It is certain that the community need have no compunction about applying to this class so-called severe measures of compulsory detention and work for indefinite periods, and it must be remembered that for vagrants, who will not have households of their own, who have but one object in all their wicked and perverse lives--to exist without work at the expense of their industrious neighbours--we are taxed to provide board and lodging. Lastly, there is the class of old and infirm persons who are unemployable, who cling to the little liberty left to them by going from casual ward to casual ward in preference to entering the workhouse infirmaries. Between the 1st May and the 31st December, 1912, thirty-three men over fifty, including twelve over sixty, were admitted from forty to fifty-four times each in the casual wards, and nine women aged from fifty to seventy years were admitted over forty times each."

It remains to be seen whether this endorsement of the findings of the Committee by the Authorities of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, who have given such close and practical attention to the subject, will influence opinion toward the severe measures of compulsory detention which are recommended. Prior to the War the number of persons sentenced at Quarter Sessions as Incorrigible Rogues was increasing, the average number for the five years ended 1913 having been 618, as compared with 398 for the preceding five years. This increase may indicate greater attention on the part of the Courts towards repressing the evil. Although there is no system of identification for the purpose of the Vagrant Class at present in existence, there is evidence from a Prison in the Midlands that, of 700 prisoners of the Vagrant Class received during a period of 12 months some years ago, one-third had served from two to seven imprisonments during the year. The total convictions incurred by these 236 prisoners were as follows:--

From 2 to 4 previous convictions had been incurred by 95 " 5 " 10 " " " " " 66 " 11 " 20 " " " " " 58 " 21 to 30 " " " " " 6 " 31 " 50 " " " " " 9 67 " " " " " 1 87 " " " " " 1

It will be seen from the foregoing short account of the history of Vagrancy that England has not yet adopted any special plan for dealing with this problem on the lines with which we are familiar in other Countries. It is possible that the growth of professional Vagrancy, manifested in an increase of those offences which are now grouped generically under the law of Vagrancy, may induce either the State or the local Authority to protect itself against what is at once an intolerable nuisance and a social danger, by the introduction of a System which will allow of the sequestration, for indeterminate periods, and under an austere system of detention, of that category of Vagrants, who, by a series of convictions for criminal acts, prove to be a danger to society. At the present time, however, no action in this direction is being contemplated by the Government, and the efficacy of imprisonment for the punishment of such offences is still relied upon, in spite of increasing evidence that short sentences are ineffectual as a remedy. So far as the casual pauper is concerned, it is likely that the recent action of the Local Government Board in the unification of the Casual Ward System will be further extended in that direction where the policy, carefully and energetically carried out by the Metropolitan Asylums Board, has already been fruitful in such excellent results.

(2) INEBRIETY:--

It is just fifty years ago since the need for special legislation for the proper control and treatment of inebriates, on the grounds that such persons contributed to crime and lunacy, and caused nuisance, scandal, and annoyance to the public, became apparent. At that time there was no process whereby an inebriate who became a public offender could be dealt with, except by short sentences of imprisonment; and no means whatever by which a private inebriate could be dealt with, however much he constituted himself a cause of nuisance or distress to his family. The futility of short sentences of imprisonment for the reform of the inebriate offender was fully recognised by prison authorities; by those who took an active interest in prison reform; and by magistrates, before whom the same drunkards repeatedly came, in no way improved by the only method then applicable; and was accentuated by certain notorious cases of persons who served, without improvement, hundreds of short sentences.

In 1872 a Select Committee of the House of Commons agreed that it had been shown, by the evidence taken, that "drunkenness is the prolific parent of crime, disease, and poverty" that "self-control is suspended or annihilated, and moral obligations are disregarded; the decencies of private and the duties of public life are alike set at nought; and individuals obey only an overwhelming craving for stimulant to which everything is sacrificed." No action was taken on this Report until 1878, when a Bill was presented to Parliament for dealing with the more easy and less costly part of the recommendations, _viz_:--those which concerned inebriates admitted voluntarily. No attempt was made to deal with the really important class, _i.e._, persons convicted as Habitual Drunkards. The Statute of 1879 did no more than permit the establishment of Retreats, to which inebriates could be voluntarily admitted. More than ten years later, in 1892, when the inadequate protection afforded by the Law against the nuisance and the evil of habitual inebriety led to a renewed agitation, especially against the repeated infliction of short sentences for ordinary drunkenness, a Home Office Committee of Inquiry, under the Presidency of an experienced Chairman of Quarter Sessions, Mr. J.L. Wharton, M.P., was appointed. This Committee aimed, as its composition shows, rather at an amendment of the Criminal Law, and the abolition of recurring short sentences of imprisonment, the futility of which had been fully demonstrated. At this time there was less concern with regard to voluntary inebriates who, on the application of relations or friends, might be compulsorily committed to Retreats, than with the grave social evil which resulted from the interminable commitment to prison of persons who by committing offences against public order came within the action of the Criminal Law, or who were proved guilty of ill-treatment and neglect of their wives and families, and who failed to find the required sureties for good behaviour.

The principle of the Act of 1898, which resulted from the findings of this Committee, was that the protection of the community, and the opportunity of reform, would only be obtained by relatively prolonged detention. The Act accordingly legalized detention for a term not exceeding three years (_a_) of persons convicted on indictment, where a Superior Court is satisfied that the offence was committed under the influence of drink, or that drink was a contributing cause, and where the offender admits that he is, or is found by a Jury to be, a Habitual Drunkard: (_b_) of persons convicted under various Statutes enacting penalties for drunken conduct, who, within the preceding twelve months, had been convicted summarily at least three times of any such offence,--such persons to be confined either in a State Reformatory or in a Reformatory established and maintained by local or independent authority.

Action was at once taken by Local Authorities throughout the country to provide for the reception of cases committed from Courts situate within their jurisdiction, but in the hope and belief that such accommodation would prove sufficient, no action was taken by the State to provide a State Institution until it became manifest that some special means must be created for dealing with cases which proved violent and intractable, and with which the local authorities were unable to cope; it being admitted that in order that these Reformatories might exercise the most beneficial effect, they must be conducted under conditions as far removed as possible from Prison methods and restrictions. Unless the State were in a position to undertake the charge of such cases, the only alternative would have been to discharge them, and, in fact, such discharges did take place, and it was made clearly evident that the establishment of a State Institution was essential to the proper working of the Act. It was accordingly decided, in 1900, to build a State Reformatory for female Inebriates on a plot of land contiguous to the Female Convict Prison at Aylesbury, and for male Inebriates it was decided to adopt a disused part of Warwick Prison which could be entirely severed from all connection with the penal quarters.

It was decided to confine the use of the State Reformatories to the reception and treatment of persons who had proved uncontrollable in the Local Reformatories. They are conducted on prison lines only so far as is necessary to ensure safe custody and control, and on strictly asylum principles in all matters referring to the treatment of inmates. The application of all restraint and punishment is controlled by the medical aspect of the question. The majority of inmates are persons who, through a long life of debauch, immorality, violence, and crime, have given constant trouble to the Police in the streets and to Prison Authorities during innumerable penal sentences. They are either too old, too confirmed in their habits, or too demented to afford ground for any hope of reformation. The value of the State reformatory will not consist in the production of actual results, but its existence will permit of certified institutions carrying on a work of reformation otherwise impossible. It will also ensure the retention to the end of their sentence of persons who are dangerous at large, a disgrace to the streets, and an important source of contamination to others. The pity is that at the end of such sentence the law requires the absolute discharge from custody of persons known to be so dangerous and so deleterious to the peace, morality, and health of the community at large.

These State Institutions are under the control of the Prison Commissioners, and form part of the Prison administration. They are controlled by minute regulations, approved by Parliament, and their function is to reconcile, as far as possible, a strict custody and control with certain alleviating conditions and privileges for those who deserve them. Their population is however, relatively small, the average for the three years prior to the War not having exceeded nineteen Males and fifty-seven Females. Since that date the numbers gradually fell, and, at the present time, there are no inmates in custody. The inmates of State Institutions practically represent the persons of both classes who are of a character and temperament incapable of control in local Institutions. As the number committed to the local Institutions diminishes, there is, of course, a corresponding reduction in the number coming under State control.

Although both Sections 1 and 2 of the Act give effect to a most important principle, _viz._, the special treatment otherwise than by imprisonment, of persons whose offence is due to morbid conditions, affecting the power of self-control, and whom it is practically useless to punish for the offence, while the predisposing condition is left untouched, yet experience, so far, does not furnish evidence that the power given to the Courts is either largely exercised or fruitful of curative effect.

The great majority of cases dealt with under Section 1 of the Act are for cruelty to children (459 out of 586 up to the end of 1913) and the tendency of the day is more and more towards Summary procedure, owing largely to the delay, and expense, and trouble involved by commitment for trial under this Section to the Superior Courts.

With regard to Section 2, which enables Summary Courts to send to Inebriate Reformatories persons convicted of certain scheduled offences of drunkenness, only about 4,300 have been dealt with since the Act became law, although during that period more than 3,500,000 persons have been convicted in Summary Courts of drunken behaviour.

The reluctance of the Courts to pass long sentences of detention, especially in the case of men, (more than 80 per cent. of the commitments are women): the comparative ease and simplicity of commitment to Prison: the delay and difficulty involved by a comparatively cumbrous procedure; and an uncertainty as to the prospect of recovery, as a result of special treatment--all these things operate against any wide use of the law in Summary Courts, which is also hindered by the absence of any definite instruction as to the share to be borne by the State and the Local Authority, respectively, in the maintenance of these Institutions.

Opinion has, however, been by no means indifferent to the operation of the Act, and is far from being satisfied at the present time with the extent of its application. In 1908, the Secretary of State appointed a strong Committee to inquire as to the operation of the Law, and to report what amendments, either in law or administration, were desirable; and their valuable recommendations will probably receive the attention of Parliament in the near future. The principal proposals are in the direction of increasing the power of the Summary Courts, giving to Magistrates a discretionary power to send to Reformatories, in addition to, or in substitution of, imprisonment, all persons who are adjudged to be Inebriates and who commit offences now dealt with summarily by committal to Prison. It is also proposed that the necessity for proving three previous convictions shall be abolished, and that the State should, at its own cost, provide for the accommodation and maintenance of all Inebriates committed by Courts. With regard to penalty, the free use of the Probation Act was recommended under special conditions suitable to the case. If, however, Probation were not thought desirable, it was proposed that the first sentence to a Reformatory should be for a period not exceeding six months, to be followed by a period of Probation; but where an Inebriate forfeits such Probation, on breach of its conditions, he shall be liable to be committed to a Reformatory for a period not exceeding one year, again, on release, to be subject to Probation; but if he again forfeits such Probation, for two years, and, in the event of further forfeiture, for three years.

Should these recommendations be adopted by Parliament, it is possible that greater results than at present might be achieved, and the measure might find larger application. It is doubtful if the public sentiment is keen to penalize inebriety, when it does not result in serious harm to the community, by methods of long detention under discipline and control. In so far as the proposals of the Committee of 1908 modify these long periods by placing offenders on Probation, there may be disposition on the part of the Courts to take this course, except in cases where the overt criminal act resulting from inebriety is grave and serious, and where punishment under ordinary penal law is called for. There is, moreover, a feeling which operates against harsh or drastic sentences in the case of inebriety, due to the proved association between mental disorder and habitual drunkenness. Experience of the operation of the Law of 1898 has confirmed this belief. Of the more turbulent cases whom it has been necessary to transfer to State Inebriate Reformatories for purposes of control, it is found that a very large proportion are more or less defective in mind. That such persons should be segregated from their fellows, and from the opportunity of doing harm is, of course, a great gain; and, of itself, would justify the cost of these Institutions, which is considerable. It must be frankly recognized that in these cases the purpose of detention is for the public safety, and not with the hope of reform. The law protects the community by compulsory segregation within a limit of three years, although the criminal offence will probably in most cases only warrant a short sentence of imprisonment. This is something gained in the interests of order. It does not constitute an encouragement to make further efforts for the cure of habitual inebriety by means of costly Institutions, and for this reason, apart from the inherent difficulties of the case, rapid progress in dealing with this evil in this country can hardly be expected. The Prison Authority is only concerned with this question of inebriety as a factor of crime. By many writers, drink and crime are used almost as synonymous terms, yet nothing is so difficult as to trace the extent to which criminal statistics are influenced by drink. In 1913, the actual convictions for drunkenness represented 32 per cent. of the total convictions for all offences, but in addition to this, must be reckoned the number of offences to which drunkenness was directly a contributing cause. It is a reasonable inference that alcohol enters, as a contributing factor, into about 50 per cent. of offences committed in this country in any given year. To legislate against drink is indirectly, therefore, to legislate against Crime. As shown in Chapter XVII, a striking illustration has been afforded showing the great decrease in crime generally which has taken place during the War, when severe restrictions have been placed upon the sale of intoxicating liquor. In previous years, in times of industrial prosperity and plentiful wages, convictions for drunkenness have been enormous, and have obscured the decrease which has taken place, as a result of prosperity, in other offences, _e.g._, Vagrancy, and petty larceny.

In his Report for 1909, Dr. Branthwaite, the Inspector under the Inebriates Acts, furnishes a most valuable and interesting analysis of the life history and mental and physical conditions of 1,031 persons. This investigation was conducted by himself personally, and throws a flood of light on the nature of the problem to be dealt with. He states that as a result of his inquiry, "three points of vital importance stand out clearly--(1) the close association between inebriety and psycho-neurotic disturbance, (2) the physical unfitness resulting from a life of uncontrolled inebriety, and (3) the necessity for the organisation of more suitable methods for dealing with persons who offend against law and order by reason of habitual drunkenness."

"The presence of obvious mental defect in a large proportion of cases, and (in cases not obviously defective) the criminal tendencies, the proneness to immorality, the uneducability, the early age at which disorderly habits commence, the ease with which all inmates become excited by alcohol, and their unreasonable behaviour in a hundred different ways, are conclusive evidences of the existence of a mental state far removed from normal, in nearly all cases committed to Reformatories. To attempt to attribute all such conditions to vicious indulgence in alcohol is absurd; they existed in the large majority of cases long before drunkenness appeared, or they developed _pari passu_ with the drunkenness from a common cause. When mental defect is obvious, it will usually be found responsible for the drunkenness; when not sufficiently definite to be recognised, a modified morbid strain, a heredity of disorder, a psycho-neurotic fault, a constitutional peculiarity, call it what we may, will generally be discovered as the key to the position."

His condemnation of short sentences in Prison as a cure for inebriety in all its forms is expressed as follows:--

"The arguments in favour of the substitution of something better than the short sentence prison treatment of inebriates hold good, whether the individual be reformable or not. The routine of a prison is no more suited to the needs of the habitual drunkard than it is suited to the treatment of any other form of mental unsoundness. The inebriate requires careful medical attention, regular bathing, physical exercise and drill, with a view to the recovery of physical, as a preliminary to recovery of mental health. His condition demands harder, more continuous and healthy work than is possible in the confines of a cell, or even within the restricted area of prison walls. Either in the form of education, work or play, he wants occupation of some sort throughout the day, in company with his fellows, under supervision only just sufficiently strict to prevent its misuse. Discipline is essential, but it should be the discipline of army barracks, or a ship; not the necessarily hard routine of a prison. Punishment, as such, must be kept in the background, and, so far as is possible, encouragement for good conduct, and reward for good work, should replace the fear of the results of bad conduct and idleness. But, above all, he requires medical treatment for his disordered mental state applied as early as possible after the condition is recognised. The nearer an Inebriate Reformatory resembles a mental hospital in all its arrangements, the better will be its suitability for the work it has to do, and the more the mental aspect of inebriety is kept in the foreground, the more satisfactory will be the results of treatment and control."

It is true that the views expressed by Dr. Branthwaite seem to indicate as a rule the dependence of habitual inebriety on pre-existent "mental defect", and will not, as such, be accepted by general authority; and it is well known that a strong tendency to drink to intoxication exists in very many persons and families who show no other signs of deficient intelligence or loss of self-control. But the experience of many other observers who have dealt with inebriates committed by the courts to reformatories under the Act undoubtedly corroborates Dr. Branthwaite's opinion that notably large numbers of such inebriates have been markedly defective in mind from even their earliest years.

The question is well summed up in the general observations on the nature of Inebriety in the Report of the Committee of 1908:--"Inebriety is undoubtedly a constitutional peculiarity; and depends, in many cases, upon qualities with which a person is born, in many is acquired by vicious indulgence. Whether the possession of such a constitutional peculiarity, when inborn, should or should not be considered, from the scientific point of view, a disease, is perhaps, a question of nomenclature. If such native constitutional peculiarities as the possession of a sixth finger, and the absence of a taste for music, are rightly considered diseases, then the native constitutional peculiarity which underlies many cases of inebriety may be so considered. But there are cogent reasons why the term disease should not be used to characterise the inebriate habit. By disease is popularly understood a state of things for which the diseased person is not responsible, which he cannot alter except by the use of remedies from without, whose action is obscure, and cannot be influenced by exertions of his own. But if, as is unquestionably true, inebriety can be induced by cultivation; if the desire for drink can be increased by indulgence, and self-control diminished by lack of exercise; it is manifest that the reverse effects can be produced by voluntary effort; and that desire for drink may be diminished by abstinence, and self-control, like any other faculty, can be strengthened by exercise. It is erroneous and disastrous to inculcate the doctrine that inebriety, once established, is to be accepted with fatalistic resignation, and that the inebriate is not to be encouraged to make any effort to mend his ways. It is the more so since inebriety is undoubtedly in many cases recovered from, in many diminished, and since the cases which recover or amend are those in which the inebriate himself desires and strives for recovery."