§ MR. DAVID JENKINSasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether he has any control over the administration of Criminal Law in the island of Jersey; and, if so, whether his attention has been directed to the case of Harriet Gilbert, a girl of fourteen years of age, who was recently convicted on a charge of having stolen a small piece of butter and a few pence, and sentenced by a Jersey magistrate to imprisonment for one month, half of which time was to be passed in solitary confinement; whether, as reported, she was placed in a damp cell, and during the first and third weeks of imprisonment her fare was limited to a pound of bread daily, and a totally insufficient quantity of water, which, in spite of her earnest request for a further supply to quench her thirst, was not increased; and, whether, in consequence of this treatment, the child died before the term of the sentence had expired?
MR. ASSHETON CROSSI have, Sir, no control, as Secretary of State, over the administration of the criminal law in Jersey, except when advising Her Majesty in the exercise of her Prerogative. The prisons in Jersey are governed by a Prison Board, established by an Order in Council dated 1860. No reports are made to the Home Office by this Board, and there is no inspection of prisons in Jersey by the Prison Inspectors connected with the Home Office. I believe it is quite true, as stated in the Question, that a girl 14 years of age was sentenced to imprisonment for a month for theft, that half of this time was to be passed in solitary confinement, and that during the first and third weeks of her imprisonment she was kept on bread and water. Since my attention was called to this matter, I have communicated with the Governor respecting it, and am glad to find that his attention had already been directed to the case, and that he had made very stringent inquiries. It turns out that, by no rule of the Prison Board, but by a practice which has grown up, whenever a prisoner has been sentenced to solitary confinement, he has always been kept on bread and water. The Governor very properly interfered the moment the matter was brought to his attention, and 363 that custom has in consequence been entirely discontinued for the future. The girl, however, was sentenced to this imprisonment. She was an old offender, and had been in custody five times within the previous six months. Probably, therefore, she deserved her sentence, but the bread and water formed no part of her sentence; and the magistrate, I believe, had no notion of the existence of this rule of the prison when he inflicted the sentence. However, I am happy to say that such an incident can never occur again. The authorities of the prison deny that the girl's health suffered injury from the dampness of her cell. She seems to have been naturally of a weakly constitution, though her death was no doubt accelerated by her treatment in prison. I regret very much that such a case should have occurred, and can only repeat that it cannot occur again.
§ MR. DAVID JENKINSasked, whether an inquest had been held on the body of the girl, who died in prison before her sentence expired?
MR. ASSHETON CROSSsaid, there was no Coroner in Jersey, but an inquiry had been held by the Vicomte into the cause of death, and the conclusion come to was that the child died from natural causes.