section c punishment

• In 1908 the Children’s Act ended hanging of children under the age of 16.
• The 1922 Infanticide Act said mothers who killed newborn babies would no longer receive the death penalty.
• In 1957 the Homicide Act limited the death sentence to five categories of murder
• After the 1957 Act, there were an average of four executions a year (down from around 15 people a year in the earlier 1950s).
• In 1965 the Murder Act suspended the death penalty for murder for five years; this was made permanent in 1969.
• The death penalty was ended for all crimes in 1998
• In parliament, opinions about the death penalty were strongly divided. The House of Commons passed bills abolishing the death penalty in 1948 and 1956, but these were blocked by the House of Lords.
• The home secretary who oversaw the abolition of the death penalty was Roy Jenkins, and he is seen as a key reason for why abolition eventually succeeded. The abolition of the death penalty was a part of a pattern of changing attitudes in the 1960s, when generally attitudes became more liberal.
• Timothy Evans, who was hanged for murdering his wife and baby in 1950. Later evidence showed that they had been killed by a serial killer and Evans was in fact innocent.
• In 1953, Derek Bentley was hanged for the murder of a police officer, despite having learning difficulties and a low mental age.
• In 1955, Ruth Ellis was hanged for the murder of her abusive boyfriend. She was pregnant and the mother to a young child. A petition with 50,000 signatures asking for leniency (mercy) was ignored by the home secretary.
• In 1896, Broadmoor Hospital opened for mentally ill prisoners (rather than them being treated the same as other prisoners).
• In 1902 hard labour ended.
• In 1907, probation officers were employed to check on offenders living outside prison
• In 1922 the separate system ended, and more educational opportunities for prisoners were introduced
• In 1933 the first open prison, at New Hall, Wakefield, was opened. These had a more relaxed regime and prisoners were allowed out on day release. The idea was to prepare prisoners for life after prison
• An Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) places restrictions on what a person can do, eg where they can go or who they can socialise with.
• Community service is where people convicted of minor offences are ordered to do supervised work to improve their local community.
• Restorative justice is where a criminal meets the victim of their crime to understand the impact of what they have done.
• Electronic tagging is where a person must wear an electronic tag that monitors and restricts their movements.
• Drug and alcohol treatment programmes offer help to people who have got involved in crime because of addiction.
• In 1900, borstals were introduced. The first one was set up in Kent in 1902
• In 1908 the Prevention of Crime Act created a national system of borstals.
• Borstals were prisons entirely for boys, and were designed to keep young convicts separate from older criminals. The day was very structured and disciplined with an emphasis on physical exercise and learning practical skills.
• In 1982 the Criminal Justice Act abolished the borstal system and replaced them with youth custody centres.
• The 1948 Criminal Justice Act reduced the use of prison for juveniles, and led to improvements in the probation service for young people. It also introduced detention centres, that had a more relaxed regime than borstals, and attendance centres for minor crimes (which only requested attendance at weekends).
• The 1948 Criminal Justice Act was heavily influenced by the ideas of the prisoners commissioner, Alexander Patterson. He argued that probation and rehabilitation were essential.
• The 1963 Children and Young Persons Act raised the age of criminal responsibility from eight to ten years
• The 1969 Children and Young Persons Act favoured care orders, supervision by probation officers, rather than prison sentences.