§ MR. M'COANasked Mr. Attorney General for Ireland, In what exactly consists the punishment undergone by prisoners in Irish gaols sentenced to hard labour, as regards their confinement, dietary, work, and general prison discipline; and in what, in respect of all these particulars, it differs from the punishment of prisoners sentenced to penal servitude?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. W. M. JOHNSON)I am afraid it is hardly possible to compress into the limits of a reasonable answer all the detailed information which is asked for. As to confinement, minimum penal servitude is five years, and maximum imprisonment two years. Convicts are kept in separation for nine months, and have one hour's exercise daily; afterwards they work together at Mountjoy Prison or Spike Island. A prisoner—not being a convict under penal servitude—is in separation during sentence, and has two hours' daily exercise. Convicts do not sleep on a plank bed; but prisoners, not convicts, do for one month. Convicts, by industry and good conduct, can earn remission of a portion of their sentence; a prisoner not a convict cannot. As to diet, this is settled by a regular scale of dietary for each class, which, I believe, has been laid on the 1609 Table of the House. Both classes may be placed on bread and water for prison offences; but convicts are also liable to a reduced scale of diet, called penal diet, for misconduct. As to punishment, convicts may for gross misconduct be flogged. Prisoners not convicts cannot, under any circumstances, be flogged for prison offences. As to general prison discipline, it is, I believe, concisely summarized in this answer.