A ticket-of-leave was effectively a parole for convicts which allowed them some freedoms, if they had proved themselves to be trustworthy. However, there was a need to make the conditions more stringent, following a spate of gruesome garottings or muggings in London.
“The new Ticket-of-leave Bill now passing through parliament will possibly do something towards allaying the alarm which has been excited in the public mind on the subject of garotting. The new bill renders the licence or leave revocable upon the commission of any new indictable offence, and, furthermore, reimposes the remitted penalty in addition to the punishment for the new offence. Four conditions are to be endorsed upon the ticket-of-leave: – ‘1. The holder shall preserve his licence, and produce it when called upon to do so by a magistrate or police-officer. 2. He shall abstain from any violation of the law. 3. He shall not habitually associate with notoriously bad characters, such as reputed thieves and prostitutes. 4. He shall not lead an idle and dissolute life, without visible means of obtaining an honest livelihood.’ These alterations have the effect of bringing the holders of ticket-of-leave more stringently into the power of the law than they were before; but is is to be hoped that in exercising the powers conferred upon them the police will not use them in so harsh a manner as to close the door of return to respectability & independence for ever.”
The Stamford Mercury, 18th March, 1864.