§ MR. H. A. HERBERTasked whether Her Majesty's Government contemplated the adoption of any immediate measures for the removal of convicts from the gaols in Ireland? He had received a statement from his own county (Kerry), from which it appeared that there were at present three times the number of prisoners in the gaols that there was accommodation for, and that a daily increase was being made.
§ SIR G. GREYbelieved the prisons were very much crowded. There were two classes of prisoners, the greater portion of whom were only waiting for trial. The Government had no power of placing these prisoners in any other gaol. The Prison Act imposed on grand juries the obligation to make sufficient provision for the accommodation of ordinary prisoners. The Lord Lieutenant had directed communications to be sent to grand juries on the subject. With respect to prisoners under sentence of transportation, it was quite true that they had been detained in gaol longer than usual; but that arose from the enormous increase which had take place in the number sentenced to transportation. Formerly the number did not exceed 500 annually, but last year it amounted to 2,500. At the last quarter-sessions he understood the number sentenced to transportation amounted to 559, being an excess of the annual number in former years. The Government had made every effort to provide increased accommodation. A considerable number had been removed, and ships were now receiving some for Australia. A depôt had been established at Spike Island, which depôt was now in the course of being enlarged.