§ MR. HIBBERTsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether there are any Prisons in England and Wales which are not in conformity with the 1815 requirements of the Prisons Act, 1865; and, if so, whether he will state the number of such Prisons, and whether the 35th and 36th Sections of that Act have been enforced against them?
MR. BRUCEsaid, in reply, that there were still a considerable number of both county and borough prisons which were not in conformity with the requirements of the Prisons Act of 1865. The work of bringing them into conformity had been gradual, and rather slow. In March, 1869, he received a Report from the Prison Inspectors stating that at that time there were 24 county prisons and 16 borough prisons which, from structural defects, want of proper accommodation, or discipline, were not in conformity with the Act; but about half of the number were in process of having the defects removed. Since that Report one of the Inspectors had died, and the other had retired, and the two Inspectors appointed in their places had received instructions to report upon the prisons which did not comply with the requirements of the Act. He could not find that the penal clauses of the Act had been in any case enforced.