407. We suggest that admission should be on an order from a relieving officer or assistant relieving officer,[161] or, in sudden or urgent cases, on the authority of the master of the workhouse, and that discharge should be subject to the notice which is now required in the case of ordinary inmates of the workhouse. The possession of a way ticket would entitle a woman to admission to the workhouses on her route, and if she was tramping with her husband she should be allowed to discharge herself on the morning after admission so as to join her husband. It is not likely that such cases would be numerous.
408. The removal of women from the casual wards will be of material assistance in connection with our proposal for placing the control of the wards in the hands of the police. It will greatly simplify the provision of the necessary casual wards, and there will be no need, as now, for a female staff. We think, however, that in the case of some of the larger casual wards now existing, where ample provision both in accommodation and staff has been made for the reception of female vagrants, it may be desirable, for some time after the transfer of the wards to the police authority, to continue to receive females in them. We do not contemplate that any such arrangement as this should be other than temporary, and we trust that it will be found practicable eventually to establish a uniform system throughout the country.
409. Apart from the reception of women into the workhouse, we do not propose that their treatment should differ materially from that proposed for men. The female habitual vagrant should, we think, be liable to be sent to a labour colony, which, of course, should be one appropriated to women only. We do not anticipate that there will be many cases which will need to be sent to a labour colony, and probably one or two institutions for the whole country would be sufficient. It seems to us that there would be special advantage in these being provided--at any rate, in the first instance--by private enterprise, and it is possible that there are institutions at present in existence which might properly be certified for this purpose. They should be subject, in so far as they are used for the compulsory detention of vagrant women, to the inspection and control of the Home Office.