MR. PATRICK O'BRIENI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, by rule or custom, the star class of convicts in Portland Prison were exempted from menial work in connection with the workshops; when was that rule or custom altered and the star class put to such work; on what date was John Daly and the other treason felony prisoners first put to such menial work in connection with the workshops where they have been employed; and whether John Daly is still obliged to do this menial work?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEY,) Lancashire, BlackpoolNo such custom or practice as the hon. Member suggests has been in existence of late years. Further information which I have called for as to the date when the present rule came into force has not yet reached me, but I will communicate it to the hon. Member when it arrives. The object of this rule, by which Daly and the other men in his workshop are required to perform certain sanitary work in connection with the workshop, is that, being star class men, they should not come into contact with prisoners who have not reached that class. The work must not be confounded with the work of the gang employed in cleaning the prison. Daly and the other treason felony prisoners have been employed in the manner described, on their turn coming round, for about two or three years; he is still required to perform the work.