Crime—A Challenge to Us All

Lord Longford s Group, reporting only six months after being appointed, n' m numerous proposals for reform. Some of these, like the suggestions for strengthen^1 8 j police (e.g. by the codification of powers of arrest) are neither new nor very controvef j. The re-classification of offences, so as to give a truer picture of their nature and graV ^f already under official consideration. It is widely recognised that the distinctions indictable and non-indictable, and still more so those between felony and rnisdemean no longer reflect consistent differences. * The report shows commendable awareness of the gulf between the political prono11 ments of successive governments and actual penal practice. The Remand Centres envi^ in the Criminal Justice Act of 1948 have still not materialised (apart from the one for y? y offenders "in a grim Victorian institution at Ashford") and adult offenders of all well as some juveniles of 14 to 16, continue to be sent to prison pending social and me ^ inquiries or awaiting disposal to approved schools. A contrast is drawn between 160