§ MR. FLOWER (Bradford, W.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, under Rule 70 of the rules proposed to be made under the Prisons Act, 1898, for local prisons, it is intended to withhold all library books from convicted prisoners sentenced to one month's imprisonment?
§ MR. COLLINGSUnder Rule 70 prisoners will be supplied with instructive and educational books from the prison library during the first month of their sentence. After that they will be able by good conduct and industry to gain the privilege of having works of a more amusing character also to read.
§ MR. FLOWERI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Depart- 605 ment whether he can state what officers will he charged with the duty of inflicting corporal punishment in local and convict prisons under Rule 84 for local prisons and Rule 78 for convict prisons, in the Draft of Rules proposed to be made under the Prisons Act, 1898; and if it is a fact that schoolmaster warders and hospital warders have in some cases been employed for this duty; and whether the employment of such officers for this purpose has been sanctioned?
§ MR. JESSE COLLINGSAs a rule the punishment would be inflicted by one of the ordinary discipline staff, the discretion resting with the Governor to select the most competent person. It is not likely that such a duty would be entrusted in the ordinary course to the schoolmaster or hospital warders. There is no rule regulating this matter, which can be safely left to the discretion of the Governor, who is best able to judge, according to all the circumstances of the case.
§ MR. FLOWERI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Draft of Rules proposed to be made under the Prisons Act, 1898, and now upon the Table of the House, contains, in accordance with the advice of the Departmental Committee of 1894, all the rules relating to the administration of local and convict prisons; and, if not, whether he will lay all prison rules upon the Table of the House?
§ MR. COLLINGSThe Draft includes the whole of the Rules, properly so called, for the government of local and convict prisons. There are no other rules in existence, but merely orders or general instructions as to the mode of carrying out the Rules. These are usually called Standing Orders, and are liable to alteration from time to time, according as circumstances may dictate. The Secretary of State has undertaken to furnish the Library of the House of Commons with a copy of these Standing Orders for Local and Convict Prisons, and copies will be furnished accordingly as soon as the Rules on which they are based mature. The House of Commons will then be in possession of a complete set of Rules and instructions, regulating the government of Prisons in every detail and particular.
§ MR. FLOWERI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, in all future Annual Reports of the Commissioners and Directors of Prisons, a tabulated statement of the number of lashes inflicted in every case of corporal punishment, and the number of days of dietary punishment to which prisoners have been sentenced, will be inserted?
§ MR. COLLINGSThe answer to the first part of the Question is in the affirmative, but the Home Secretary is afraid he cannot undertake to give the details suggested in the second part, as their collection and tabulation would cause an amount of clerical labour wholly out of proportion to the value of the result obtained.
MR. FLOAVERI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will arrange that the Annual Report of the Prison Commissioners shall in future contain the Annual Reports of the Visiting Committees of Local Prisons and of the Boards of Visitors of Convict Prisons?
§ MR. COLLINGSThese Reports are for the information of the Secretary of State, rather than of the public, and I think it will be found that they are more valuable if treated as confidential, than if written for publication.
§ MR. FLOWERI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, in local prisons, there are any cells used for the confinement of prisoners undergoing or awaiting punishment which can be artificially darkened by perforated iron shutters; and, if so, if he will direct the immediate removal of all unnecessary obstacles to the entrance of light into all prison cells?
§ MR. COLLINGSThe Commissioners some time ago gave orders for the removal of these perforated shutters, and in many cases these have been already removed, and the work is gradually proceeding. It involves both time and expense, as in many cases the windows have to be reglazed and a stronger glass provided.
§ MR. FLOWERI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Depart- 607 ment whether under Rule 189 of the draft of proposed rules under the Prisons Act, 1898, for local prisons, a prisoner awaiting trial is to be deprived of the special provisions of sub-rules 1, 2, 3, 4, until the Visiting Committee which may meet once a month has considered his case?
§ MR. COLLINGSThis Rule has been in operation for 20 years without any difficulty arising. It is not necessary for the whole Visiting Committee to accord these privileges, but it is in the power of any one member of the Committee to act, or in his absence the Governor would act provisionally. The constant visits of individual members of the Visiting Committee make the rule easy of application.