§ MR. P. A. TAYLORasked the Under Secretary of State for the Home Department, If he will state under what circumstances the plank bed was introduced into prisons; whether this form of discipline was found to answer any good purpose; and, if he will lay upon the Table the present instructions in regard to its use?
§ MR. ARTHUR PEEL,in reply, said, that the history of the use of the plank bed in prisons was shortly this. A Select Committee of the Lords reported in 1863 that the use of plank beds, similar to the guards' bed in military prisons, should be resorted to during short sentences and the earlier stages of long confinements. In the Prison Act of 1865 there was an enactment to the effect that a convicted criminal prisoner might be required to sleep on a plank bed without mattress during such time as might be determined by the Rules of the prison. The fact of this plank bed having been almost universally used since 1865 might be taken to indicate that it had been found to answer its purpose. The Secretary of State gave 1752 orders in 1878 that women, men over 60, and children under 13, should have a pillow and a mattress of some other material used. The hon. Member had asked if he would lay on the Table a copy of the instructions with regard to the use of the bed. The rule as to the practice was to be found in the Report of the Prison Commissioners, which was laid on the Table on the 19th February, 1878. Of these Rules, Rule 16 ran thus—
A convicted criminal prisoner shall during the whole of his sentence, when it does not exceed one month, and during one month of his sentence when it exceeds that period, be required to sleep on a plank bed; but that a prisoner shall he allowed the opportunity of earning by industry the gradual remission of this requirement, which, however, he shall be liable again to forfeit by idleness, inattention to instruction, or misconduct.