MR. MAC NEILL (Donegal, S.)I beg to ask the Solicitor General for Ireland whether his attention has been directed to the case of a man Darned Corr, who, while exercising in the exercise yard in Derry Gaol on 9th July, was struck down and subsequently died from the effects of sunstroke; whether this yard and the exercising yards in other prisons are wholly exposed and without protection either from heat or rain; whether the want of a sheltered exer- 982 cise yard disorganises all the arrangements as to the hours of exercise by compelling prisoners in inclement weather to exercise not continuously or at stated periods but in the intervals between showers; and, whether he will direct the Prisons Board to take steps for erecting sheds in prison exercise yards by which the prisoners may be protected from the effects of heat and rain, and the arrangements of the prison carried out with greater efficiency and regularity?
§ MR. MADDENThe General Prisons Board report that the facts are substantially as stated in the first two paragraphs. No material disorganization, such as that suggested in the third paragraph of this question, arising from the want of a sheltered exercise yard, has ever been brought to the notice of the Board, and they believe that the Governors of Prisons experience no practical difficulty in making such arrangements in this respect as circumstances from time to time call for. The Board are of opinion that serious objections exist against the erection of sheds adjoining the prison walls.