Penge Penal Insti­tute, 28 April, 12–30 pm

Two 17-year-old youths, one male, one female, birched for an act of gross inde­cen­cy at a bus stop on Sat­ur­day night. Youth A (male) sen­tenced to 24 strokes of the birch, youth B (female) to 12 strokes. SCO Rod­well asked the youths why the court had not sen­tenced them to the same pun­ish­ment, ‘Because that’s how them sil­ly judges think,’ said youth A. ‘It ain’t fair.’ SCO Rod­well asked youth B if she con­curred that the sen­tenc­ing was unfair. Youth B, after con­sid­er­ing the mat­ter, said she did. ‘After all, we was both doing what we was doing, wasn’t we?’ SCO Rod­well asked whether, since there was una­nim­i­ty on the point, it would be rea­son­able for her to give each youth 18 strokes, thus equal­is­ing their sen­tences. The youths, after delib­er­at­ing with each oth­er, agreed. The 18-stroke birch­ings were duly admin­is­tered, full force, by DCO Pren­der­gast. Both youths were reduced to tears, but thanked the cor­rec­tion offi­cers for treat­ing them fairly.

Signed: SCO RODWELL

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