Prison for Non-Payment Sir John Simon is to be congratulated
on the prompti- tude with which he has put through Parliament a short Bill adopting the least controversial recommendation of Sir John Fisaer Williams's Committee on imprisonment for non-payment of fines or rates or money due under separation or affiliation orders. About 53,,000 people have hitherto been going to. prison every year for one or other of these defaults. What the new Act •will do is to prevent them from being sent there automatically when non=payment occurs ; instead, the magistrates must: now re-examine each case, and have careful inquiry made into the defendant's resources, before he is com- mitted to gaol. This is a considerable advance ; but, as Miss Rathbone • usefully reminded the House of Commons, it is very far from exhausting the valuable Fischer Williams -recommendations. And it is greatly to be hoped that its prompt enactment will not be thought to excuse further legislation. The Home Secretary has so far only touched the fringe of the subject,
Previous page
