The Province of Westphalia is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, but as the Benninghausen Labour House is the only one in the province it has to be conducted on what is known as the "paritative" basis; it serves for both confessions, though each has its special chaplain. At the time of my visit the institution was housing temporarily, in addition to the ordinary subjects of correction, a number of lads and girls, the children of abandoned parents, the charge of whom had been undertaken by the Poor Law Authority in virtue of the law of 1890, and for whom more suitable provision did not exist at the moment. The numbers of detainees dealt with during the financial year 1907-8 were as follows:-- -----------------------+--------+----------+-------- | Males. | Females. | Total. -----------------------+--------+----------+-------- Number on April 1 | 307 | 27 | 334 Admitted during year | 377 | 25 | 402 Discharged during year | 329 | 30 | 359 Remained, March 31 | 355 | 22 | 377 Total number dealt | | | with during year | 684 | 52 | 736 Daily average number | 367 | 23 | 330 Maximum number | 355 | 27 | -- Minimum number | 280 | 20 | -- -----------------------+--------+----------+-------- Those committed in 1907-8 had committed the following offences:-- ------------------------+--------+----------+-------- | Males. | Females. | Total. ------------------------+--------+----------+-------- Vagabondage | 25 | -- | 25 Begging | 276 | 1 | 277 Begging and vagabondage | | | together | 29 | -- | 29 Idleness | 16 | -- | 16 Work-shyness | 2 | -- | 2 Homelessness | 16 | -- | 16 Professional immorality | 9 | 27 | 36 ------------------------+--------+----------+-------- Of the men newly admitted, 177 had been detained in a Labour House before, 64 of them more than three times, and the great majority had been imprisoned.