§ MR. HOOPER (Cork, S.E.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether a girl named Griffin, from the Ballinspittle Petty Sessions District of the County Cork, has been recently imprisoned in Cork Female 765 Prison; of what offence was she convicted; what was her age; was she compelled to associate with abandoned women at exercise in the prison; whether she was also for a considerable portion of each day within earshot of the conversation of women of this class; whether it was with the knowledge of the Irish Prisons Board she was so brought into such contact with snob persons; and, whether any power exists under the present law for saving a girl of her years from association with women of the character referred to; and, if not, whether he will take an early apportunity of changing the law in that direction?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR) (Manchester, E.)I am informed that the reply to the first paragraph is in the affirmative. The reply to the second paragraph is that she was convicted of taking forcible possession of a house and land. The reply to the third paragraph is that the young woman was aged 19. In answer to the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh paragraphs I have to say that there is no such association allowed between the prisoners, who are obliged to walk five paces apart and to keep silence. I am informed by the Prisons Board that they think it is convenient that first committals should exercise as far apart as is practicable from old offenders, and that they so directed in this case when the facts were brought under their notice. If I am correctly informed, this constitutes a difference of practice between English and Irish prisons, which, like most of the other differences, is in favour of the Irish prisoners.
§ MR. HOOPERDoes the right hon. Gentleman mean to deny that this young woman, whose age, I understand, is 14, is obliged to exercise within a very short distance with women of this disreputable character in a small yard in Cork Gaol? And is not this a discreditable state of things?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI think I stated the Prison Rule requires them to be kept five paces apart on each side while exercising.
§ In reply to Mr. CONYBEARE (Cornwall, Camborne),
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURsaid, that the house and land for the taking of which she was convicted belonged, not to her own father, but to the owner of the soil.