ABSTRACT
IN other countries it is usual to find the ‘penitentiary administration’ in the Ministry of Justice. Since England has no such Minister, it is natural that our administration should come under the Home Secretary, who ‘takes a part in the administration of criminal justice, so great that for some of its purposes he might be described as the Minister of Justice’. 1 If that were not enough, he is also the King's adviser on the exercise of the Prerogative of Mercy, and is especially responsible for the keeping of the King's Peace, which brings into the Home Office all matters concerning police and public order; and finally, ‘he is charged with all the home affairs of England and Wales except those … which are assigned to other and newer departments’. 2 It would therefore have been difficult, one way and another, for the administration of prisons and kindred institutions to have fallen anywhere but the Home Office, where it keeps company with the departments responsible for the probation service and for the approved schools for children and young persons who come before the Courts.
