§ MR. TALBOT (Oxford University)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he can state to the House what progress has been made in the provision of matrons for the police stations of the metropolis; and whether he can hold out an assurance that arrangements shall be made for insuring that female prisoners shall not be detained without the supervision of persons of their own sex?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. COLLINGS,) Birmingham. BordesleyArrangements have been made for the practically continuous attendance of matrons at some of the principal stations of the inner or Town Divisions of the Metropolitan Police District, where female prisoners are most frequently received. These women attend upon all female prisoners, and the system appears to have worked with sufficient advantage to justify its extension whenever circum- 520 stances require it. At stations where the reception of female prisoners is comparatively infrequent the services of a respectable female—either the wife or widow of a police officer living near—are invariably secured whenever a female prisoner is brought in and detained.