referred to the bad effect of repeated short-sentences over ... and were criminals who are again convicted of robbery. In the ordinary routine of daily work, cases came before me for trial whose general history was something of this kind:-
1st Offence. Larceny: Sentence 1 month imprisonment, and a flogging.
2nd Offence. Larceny. Sentence 3 months' imprisonment, and flogging.
3rd Offence. Larceny. Sentence 6 months imprisonment with hard Labor.
4th Offence. Larceny. Sentence 6 months imprisonment with hard Labor.
When the case came to this stage, there is generally a recommendation that at the end of the imprisonment the offender should be deported: and then comes, after release,
5th Offence. Larceny and returning from deportation. 12 months' imprisonment with hard Labor.
I do not blame the Magistrates for this unsatisfactory way of dealing with crime.
As long as the lash was administered in the associated plan, and was liable to periodical awarding, and as long as the Deportation Ordinances were used for clearing the prison and for punishing larcenies, the Magistrates very naturally accommodated their sentences to this system.