Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1963
| Year | 1963 |
Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1963
1963 CHAPTER 39
An Act to amend the law of Scotland relating to the imprisonment and detention of offenders and other persons; to make further provision as to the treatment of prisoners and other persons committed to custody, including provision for their supervision within the British Islands after discharge, for the management of approved schools and for the treatment of persons detained therein; to amend the law relating to the payment of fines and detention in default of payment thereof within Great Britain; to alter the law relating to the proceedings of criminal courts in Scotland and to legal aid in such proceedings; to alter the law relating to the enforcement of warrants of arrest and the service of process in Great Britain; to provide for the execution in Scotland of warrants issued by courts in the Isle of Man; to provide for the appointment of additional judges of the Court of Session; to make certain consequential amendments to the First Offenders Act 1958 and the Criminal Justice Act 1961; and for purposes connected with the aforesaid matters.
[31st July 1963]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I
Provisions with respect to sentences and orders inferring detention
Restrictions on Imprisonment and Detention of Young Offenders
1 Restrictions on detention.
(1) No court shall impose detention on a person under twenty-one years of age, unless the court is of opinion that no other method of dealing with him is appropriate.
(2) For the purpose of determining in pursuance of the provisions of subsection (1) of this section whether any other method of dealing with a person mentioned therein is appropriate, the court shall obtain information about that person's circumstances from a probation officer or otherwise and shall consider that information; and the court shall take into account any information before it which is relevant to his character and to his physical and mental condition.
(3) Where a court of summary jurisdiction imposes detention on an offender under twenty-one years of age, the court shall state the reason for its opinion that no other method of dealing with him is appropriate, and the reason shall be entered in the record of the proceedings along with the finding and sentence.
(4) Where, after the commencement of this section, in the case of a person who is of or over seventeen years of age but less than twenty-one years of age the court is of opinion as aforesaid, and either—
(a ) if the person has been convicted of an offence punishable with imprisonment, is satisfied, having considered all the circumstances of the case, that neither a sentence of borstal training nor a sentence of detention in a detention centre should be imposed; or
(b ) would have power but for the said commencement to impose imprisonment otherwise than by sentence;
it shall, subject to the following provisions of this Act, instead of imposing a term of imprisonment upon him impose detention in a young offenders institution for a term not exceeding the term for which he could have been imprisoned.
Young Offenders Institutions
2 Young offenders institutions.
(1) The Secretary of State shall provide such young offenders institutions as appear to him to be necessary, and accordingly, after section 31 (1) (c ) of the Prisons (Scotland) Act 1952 (which relates to remand centres, detention centres and borstal institutions), there shall be inserted the following paragraph—
‘and
(d ) young offenders institutions, that is to say, places in which offenders upon whom detention therein has been imposed under the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1963, may be kept for suitable training and instruction.’
(2) In any enactment—
‘(a ) any reference to a sentence of imprisonment as including a reference to a sentence of any other form of detention shall be construed as including a reference to a sentence of detention in a young offenders institution; and
(b ) any reference to imprisonment as including any other form of detention shall be construed as including a reference to detention in a young offenders institution.’
Borstal Training
3 Conditions for a sentence of borstal training.
3. The power of a court to pass a sentence of borstal training under section 20 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1949 shall not be exercised in the case of any person on whom such a sentence has previously been imposed and who has served any part thereof.
4 Term of detention and supervision under a sentence ofborstal training.
(1) The maximum period for which a person sentenced to borstal training after the commencement of this section may be detained in pursuance of section 33 (2) of the Prisons (Scotland) Act 1952 shall be two years instead of three years.
(2) The period for which a person sentenced to borstal training after the commencement of this section is to be under supervision under section 33 (3) of the said Act after his release from a borstal institution shall, subject to any order of the Secretary of State under that subsection, be a period of one year beginning with the date of his release (instead of a period of three years from the date of sentence or of one year from the date of release, whichever period expires earlier).
(3) Where in pursuance of section 33 (4) of the said Act an order is made for the recall of a person sentenced to borstal training after the commencement of this section and subsequently released, the maximum period for which he shall be liable to be detained following recall shall be three months instead of one year.
5 Detention on recall from supervision under a sentenceof borstal training.
(1) Where in pursuance of section 33 (4) of the said Act of 1952 an order is made for the recall of a person who is under supervision after his release from a borstal institution, that person shall, after the commencement of this section, instead of being detained in a borstal institution, be detained in a young offenders institution.
(2) The Secretary of State shall have power, in the case of a person who is detained in a borstal institution at the commencement of this section after his recall as aforesaid, to transfer that person to a young offenders institution.
6 Recall on re-conviction.
(1) Where a person sentenced to borstal training, being under supervision after his release from a borstal institution, is convicted of an offence punishable with imprisonment, the court may, instead of dealing with him in any other manner, make an order for his recall.
(2) An order for the recall of a person made as aforesaid shall have the like effect as an order for recall made by the Secretary of State under section 33 (4) of the Prisons (Scotland) Act 1952.
Detention Centre
7 Detention in a detention center.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, in any case where a person who is not less than fourteen but under twenty-one years of age is convicted of an offence punishable with imprisonment, and the court has been notified by the Secretary of State that a detention centre is available for the reception from that court of persons of his class or description, it may pass on him a sentence of detention in that centre for a fixed term of three months.
(2) A court shall not pass a sentence under this section in the case of a person who has served or is serving a sentence involving his detention for two months or more in a prison or in a young offenders institution or a sentence of borstal training, or in the case of a person who has served a sentence of detention in a detention centre, unless the court is of the opinion that, having regard to special considerations arising out of the circumstances of the case and the character of the offender, this method of dealing with him is the most appropriate.
(3) Where it appears to the Secretary of State that a person detained in a detention centre is unfit for such detention by reason of his health, without prejudice to any other powers he may have in the matter, he may, after consultation where practicable with the judge by whom or the presiding chairman of the court by which the sentence was passed, release that person; and he shall then be required to be under supervision in accordance with section 11(1) of this Act.
(4) Section 19 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1949 shall cease to have effect.
8 Term of detention in a detention center.
(1) The term for which a person may be detained in a detention centre shall not exceed three months...
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