§ COLONEL BERESFORDasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If he intends to take any steps to mitigate the distress existing among the mat makers by reason of the employment of steam power in Wakefield Prison in such manufacture?
MR. BRUCEsaid, in reply, that he had no power to take any such steps as were indicated in the Question; but he presumed the object of the hon. and gallant Member was to obtain the opinion of the Government as to whether it was advisable to continue the use of steam power for that purpose in Wakefield Prison. The subject of prison labour was one not only of great interest, but great difficulty, and now excited much difference of opinion not in this country only, but in the United States of America. It was urged by some that prisoners ought not to be employed on work that came into competition with free labour. Now, the prison regulations were these—If a prisoner was sentenced to three months' imprisonment the hard labour he underwent was generally of an unremunerative kind, being confined to the treadwheel, shot drill, and the like; but if his term of punishment exceeded three months, the remainder over that period of it might be, and usually was, spent on remunerative labour, for the double purpose of relieving the rates and of accustoming the prisoner to employment by which he might when released obtain an honest living. Both of those objects were in themselves good, and unless all remunerative labour in goals were absolutely prohibited, he did not see how they could deal with the matter in the manner suggested by the hon. and gallant Gentleman. Whatever labour of a remunerative kind was performed in prisons must necessarily come into competition with free labour. It was said there were special reasons why these prisoners should not be employed in making mats, because the mat trade was now much depressed and the workpeople 585 engaged in it were in great distress. The answer to that, however, was that the justices of Wakefield asserted that they could not supply the mats as fast as they were asked for, showing that there was considerable activity in the trade. He was not prepared to bring in a Bill on the part of the Government to provide that prisoners in gaols should not be employed in remunerative labour. But the subject was surrounded with difficulty, and if the hon. and gallant Gentleman desired to bring it under the notice of Parliament it would doubtless receive full and fair consideration.