§ MR. PICKERSGILLI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the fact that during the year ended 31st March, 1897, there were twenty-seven cases of corporal punishment inflicted in Wormwood Scrubbs Prison, or nearly one-fourth of the total number of cases of corporal punishment in all local prisons, whereas the number of prisoners in Wormwood Scrubbs was only about one thirty-seventh of the entire prison population; and whether any inquiry has been instituted by the Commissioners or by the Home Office into the management of that prison with a view to ascertain the cause of this exceptional severity?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENTThe honourable Member's figures are correct. The punishments were awarded by the Visiting Committee, under their statutory powers, and in accordance with the rules then in force. These rules have since been modified. I have not instituted any special inquiry, but one cause of the large number of these punishments at Wormwood Scrubbs is that the majority of the prisoners are long-sentence prisoners. I have called for a Return.
§ MR. PICKERSGILLArising out of that answer, may I ask whether the right honourable Gentleman is aware that the proportion of corporal punishments at Wormwood Scrubbs is very considerably higher than at other prisons?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENTYes, Sir; but I am also aware that the Visiting Committee, who have to order the administration of the punishment, have not the character of being over severe in their treatment of prisoners. I have asked for a Return.