§ MR. LOCKEasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been directed to the treatment of persons confined in Newgate: Whether it is true that all persons apprehended in the City of London on suspicion of any offence are (regardless of their antecedents) lodged in Newgate Gaol and treated as criminals: Whether such persons have to clean out their own cells, and whether they are deprived of proper sleeping accommodation and a proper knife with which to eat their food: Whether all persons remanded on suspicion are prohibited from seeing their wives and children, except through a double iron grating, and in the presence of a gaoler: Whether persons so treated and ultimately acquitted or discharged have any and what redress: And, whether persons charged with less serious offences are treated the same as persons charged with murder?
§ SIR GEORGE GREYsaid, that no complaint had been made to him with respect to the treatment of prisoners in Newgate. Persons committed for trial or upon remand were treated as prisoners, but not as persons convicted of crime. For instance, they were permitted to have their food daily sent to them by their friends; but they were subject to the ordinary prison regulations, had to clean out their cells, and were not allowed any instruments by which damage might be done to themselves or others. He had been informed that they were provided with suitable and proper bedding both for summer and winter, and, though they only saw their friends through the double grating and in presence of one of the officers of the prison, that rule did not apply to interviews with their legal advisers. With regard to the latter part of the Question, he should say if any illegal act were done, the prisoners would be entitled to redress, not otherwise. Persons committed on a charge of murder were placed under special supervision not applicable to other prisoners.