First-class misdemeanant

In English law

Under the prisons act (28 & 29 Viet. c. 126, § 67) prisoners in the county, city, and borough prisons convicted of misdemeanor, and not sentenced to hard labor, are divided into two classes, one of which is calied the "first division;" and it is in the discretion of the court to order that such a prisoner be treated as a misdemeanant of the first division, usually called "first-class misdemeanant," and as such not to be deemed a criminal prisoner, i. e., a prisoner convicted of a crime.

Bouvier.