§ MR. PICKERSGILL (Bethnal Green, S.W.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether an article, entitled "The English Prison System," by Major Arthur Griffiths, Her Majesty's Inspector of Prisons, which appears in the current number of the 1312 North American Review, was published with his permission, or by the authority of the Prison Commissioners; whether his attention has been drawn to the statements in the article that one of the fiercest complainants has been a notorious felon who has repaid extreme consideration by libelling the treatment that gave him a new lease of life and strength; and whether the person who obviously is here referred to was treated in prison with exceptional favour; and, if so, upon what grounds, and by whose authority?
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENTMy permission was not obtained for the publication of this article, but Major Griffiths had the consent of the chairman of the Prison Commissioners to his accepting the invitation of the editor of the Review to write an article on the English prison system. I much regret the insertion of the statement referred to, which seems to me to be very injudicious. It is not the case, however, that the prisoner referred to was treated with exceptional favour; the prison regulations were only modified in his, as in any other, case, by considerations as to his mental and physical state.