Children under sixteen convicted and liable to imprisonment may be sent to an institution

Where a child, who in the judgment of the court before whom he is charged, is apparently under the age of eighteen years and is convicted on indictment, or in a summary manner of an offence punishable in the case of an adult with imprisonment, the court may in lieu of sentencing him according to law to any other punishment, order that he be sent to an institution and be there detained.