§ MR. W. WHITELAW (Perth)I beg to ask the Secretary for Scotland whether it is the intention of the Government to build an addition to Barlinnie Prison, to hold 260 prisoners, although there is accommodation for more than that number in the existing prison buildings in Scotland, if prisoners were more equally distributed among the different prisons; and whether, in the interests of economy, he will consider the advisability of utilising existing prisons by distributing prisoners more equally among them, instead of erecting new buildings while existing ones are not full?
§ SIR G. TREVELYANIt is not proposed to enlarge Barlinnie Prison beyond the number of cells originally intended—namely, 1,000, that is, 200 more than at present. It is very desirable that prisoners should be detained in their own districts, and frequent removal of parties of prisoners to distant prisons is opposed to the policy of the 1877 Act, and the course hitherto adopted in regard to the re-arrangement of prisons in Scotland.