§ The Marquess of Normanby moved the second reading of the Prisons Acts Amendment Bill. The object of this Bill was to enable the visiting magistrates, with the concurrence of the Secretary of State, to relax the regulations of the Prisons Acts, as regarded debtors who were confined in the same prisons with criminals.
§ The Duke of Richmondthought it would be more satisfactory if the rules and regulations were made by the magistrates at quarter sessions than by the visiting justices. He thought this would be a good opportunity for the adoption of a recommendation he made some time ago, namely, that gaols and houses of correction should be exempt from payment of the Queen's taxes, which he thought was a great hardship on the rate-payers, and he hoped the Government would on this subject show they were aware of the great additional taxes which were pressing on them.
The Marquess of Normanbyhad already given directions for the preparation of a bill for the purpose of correcting the evils complained of with respect to prisons and poor-houses. With respect to the present bill, all that was intended was to allow visiting justices to act differently with respect to debtors confined in criminal prisons to what they did with respect to others who were incarcerated criminally.
§ The Duke of Richmondtrusted that the noble Marquess would not put into the bill any suggestions with respect to workhouses, otherwise a noble Lord (Lord Stanhope), who was not now in his place, would come down and say that workhouses were prisons.
§ Bill read a second time.