HC Deb 09 December 1878 vol 243 cc308-9
MR. MITCHELL HENRY

wished to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department the Question of which he had given him private Notice, What course he proposes to pursue in reference to the case of John Nolan, a lad of 18 years of age, who died in the House of Correction, and whose death the Coroner's Jury found to be accelerated by the repeated, and excessive punishment of bread and water diet, which was ordered by the Governor and sanctioned by the Surgeon; and, whether he will be good enough to procure a Copy of the Depositions and lay them on the Table of the House, together with any Correspondence that has taken place between Sir W. H. Wyatt, the Chairman of the Visiting Justices of Middlesex, and himself, on the working of the new Prisons Act, or any other of the metropolitan or city magistrates on the same subject?

MR. ASSHETON CROSS,

in reply, said, the hon. Gentleman's Question was a painful matter, and one which affected the character of two officers of the very highest standing, one of them being a medical gentleman who had been in two prisons during a large number of years. He found the circumstances were very bad indeed; and he had therefore written to the President of the College of Physicians to ask him to name some gentleman who would assist him by going with another officer to make the strictest inquiry on the subject. The President had most handsomely stated he would be glad to undertake the inquiries himself. He (Mr. Assheton Cross) had accordingly ordered Dr. Guy, who was on the Commission for Public Prisons, and the President of the Royal College of Physicians, and any other gentleman they should agree on, to make the very strictest inquiry. Until, therefore, he received their Report, he did not think it would be right to press the subject any further. He had, however, already taken action in the matter, by ordering that the recommendation of the Jury should be carried out as to having one physician attached to each prison, instead of one for the two, as had been the case for a great number of years. He was ready to produce the Papers if the hon. Member for Galway would confer with him as to the form in which they should be laid on the Table.