In the Dale Street Police Court the children were as numerous as the adults: ‘Small mites, some of them little more than babies whose heads do not reach the top of the dock, woful [sic] little specimens of humanity encrusted with filth and barely covered with rags, are brought charged with begging and burglary.’ Although it now seems cruel that young children were sent to prison for committing petty thefts, Victorian magistrates were faced with a dilemma. In the 1860s a girl aged six stood in the dock accused of begging on the streets. She was so small that officers had to raise her up so that the magistrate could see her. A policeman traced her mother to an overcrowded lodging-house where 51 people were huddled together. The mother had five other children that she couldn't support. The siblings were also beggars, frequently punished if they did not bring home enough money. The magistrate had either to send the girl back to an inadequate mother or commit her to gaol for twenty-one days. He sent her to gaol.

Prison at least removed children from atrocious home environments. On the other hand, prisons were hardly safe places for youngsters. Bullying by older prisoners was rife. At Kirkdale the boys shared cells with the wardsmen, adults in charge of each section. One child was made to get up three times a night to use the tinderbox to light his cellmate's pipe.