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If Oscar Wilde were starting his two-year prison term at Reading Gaol to day instead of in the last century for sex with teenage boys, by the time he was set to go free, he would have to contend with the "Third Service." Which is to say, he might never go free at all.

On February 15th, Britain's Labour government declared plans to imprison for life those it labels "pedophiles," whether or not such individuals have ever committed a crime.

Home Secretary Jack Straw proposes to create what he has dubbed the "Third Service," distinct from the system of British prisons and mental hospitals. To fill these new institutions, the government is seeking new powers to incarcerate for life persons who are not mentally ill, but who have what Straw said are "personality disorders." Those finishing their sentences for age-of-consent violations would be subject to permanent lock-up, as well as those never accused of any crime. Individuals so imprisoned would have the right to have their incarceration reviewed every two years, not in court, but in a "quasi-judicial" hearing.

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The Sheriff of Gloucester is reportedly working with the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair to create five internment facilities, far from urban areas, to permanently hold those committed under the new law.

Opposition Conservatives and Liberal Democrats praised the proposal, billed as a crime-control measure. British civil liberties and human rights groups and lawyers criticized the plan, saying that imprisoning people for crimes they might commit in the future violated basic tenets of justice. **