§ MR. DAVITT (Mayo, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) whether the circumstances which induced him to dismiss a warder recently from Reading Prison included the giving of some bread to a youthful prisoner who was found crying from hunger in his cell; (2) what other circumstances, if any, led to such dismissal; and whether, in case the giving of the food in the manner mentioned was the only breach of discipline committed by the warder, he will reconsider the penalty inflicted on the erring officer; and (3) whether the offence for which an ex-prisoner has been sentenced to 14 days' imprisonment for throwing some cigar ends among convicts at Borstall is in itself legally punishable by imprisonment; and, if not, what were the other grounds on which this punishment was inflicted by the magistrates who tried and sentenced the prisoner?
§ *SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEYThe answer to the first paragraph is in the negative. As regards the second, I think it would be very undesirable to enter in detail into the circumstances attending the dismissal of prison officers. I have already informed the hon. Member that the account which he appears to have received is an incorrect one, and that I am perfectly satisfied that the dismissal of this warder was a proper step. The answer to the third paragraph is 1421 in the affirmative. The statute under which the prisoner was convicted was 2 and 3 Vict. cap.56, Section 22, and his sentence of imprisonment was in default of payment of a fine.