§ MR. M. DAVITT (Mayo, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether a warder in Reading Prison has been dismissed the service for having given some bread to a youthful prisoner whom he found crying for food in a cell; and whether an ex-prisoner named Bell has been sentenced to 14 days and to have his ticket-of-leave 1267 cancelled, involving 130 days more imprisonment, for having thrown some cigar ends among some convicts at Borstall Prison; and whether he will consider the advisability of remitting or modifying the penalties inflicted in both cases?
§ SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEYIt is the case that a warder has been dismissed at Reading. The circumstances of the dismissal, of which the hon. Member appears to have received a very incorrect account, have been reported to me, and I am satisfied that the dismissal was fully justified. The ex-convict Bell has been convicted of the offence mentioned and sentenced to 14 days' imprisonment. The question whether his licence shall be revoked or not is at present under consideration.