Criminal justice. A bill to provide new methods of dealing with offenders and to make new provision in relation to certain existing methods; to increase the penalties under the Firearms Act 1968; to extend the definition of "public place" in the Public Order Act 1936; to empower the police to take drunken offenders to treatment centres; to enable the secretary of state to release certain prisoners on licence without the recommendation of the Parole Board; to make various amendments in the law relating to criminal proceedings, the enforcement of fines, the execution of process, probation and after-care committees and property in the possession of the police; to repeal section 38 of the Prison Act 1952 and to confer a power of entry in connection with the acquisition of land for prisons; to make new provision as respects the costs of magistrates' courts and as respects justices' clerks and their staffs; and for purposes connected with those matters [electronic resource].