§ MR. BUXTONsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been drawn to a statement recently made by Mr. E. Chadwick before the Society of Arts, that, "taking 104 prison returns, 1755 which enabled a comparison of the twenty gaols where the expense and the quantity of the diet were the lowest, the twenty where the expense and the quantity of the diet were the highest, and the twenty where they were intermediate, the results came out as follows:—
and whether he will cause any inquiry to be made on the subject?
Oz. of solid food per week. Cost per head per week Sick per cent. Deaths per 1,000 20 lowest prison diets 188 1s. 10½ 3 1½ 20 intermediate diets 213 2s. 4½d. 18 3 20 highest 228 3s 2d. 23½ 4
§ SIR GEORGE GREY, in reply, said, he had not seen the statement to which the hon. Gentleman referred, and he was wholly in ignorance of the sources from which the figures referred to had been taken, nor could he vouch at all for their accuracy; but an inquiry was now going on into the whole question of the dietary in the Convict Prisons, and when completed, the result would be communicated to Parliament.