§ MR. J. W. BARCLAYasked the Lord Advocate, Whether, in the case of persons apprehended on suspicion, taken to prisons, often, since the number of 125 prisons was reduced, a long distance from their home, and subsequently liberated without trial, presumably innocent, any regulation exists for assisting them if impecunious to return home?
THE LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. J. B. BALFOUR)The Prisons Commissioners are empowered by Act of Parliament, the 36th section of the Prisons Act, 1877, to provide a prisoner "with the means of returning to his home by causing his fare to be paid by railway, or in any other convenient manner." When a prisoner is taken to a distant prison and discharged without being brought up for trial, his railway fare to his home or the place from which he was brought is in practice paid under the authority of this enactment.