§ MR. NUSSEY (Pontefract)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether, under The Prisons Act 1898, and the Rules made thereunder, persons committed for non-payment of arrears due under orders in bastardy, or arrears made under The Summary Jurisdiction (Married Women) Act, 1895, are entitled to be treated as debtors and not placed in association with criminal prisoners; whether, under Section 54 of The Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, persons imprisoned for non-payment of such sums have not been hitherto treated as ordinary criminal prisoners, and compelled to wear the prison dress; and, whether, if persons so imprisoned are not now entitled to be treated as debtors, the court may give directions as to the division in which they shall be placed under Section 6, Sub-section (2), which relates only to persons convicted by any court of an offence, and sentenced to imprisonment without hard labour.
§ * SIR M. WHITE RIDLEYThe answer to the first two paragraphs is in the affirmative, and consequently no answer is required to the third.
§ MR. NUSSEYWere persons thus imprisoned treated as ordinary criminals and made to wear prison clothes?
§ * SIR M. WHITE RIDLEYYes.
§ MR. NUSSEYI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether, by Section 9 of The Prisons Act, 1898, as to the release of a prisoner on payment of a portion of a fine, and the rules made thereunder, any provision is 49 made, similar to that contained in Section 21, Sub-section (4) of The Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, in respect to payments prior to committal, that the term of imprisonment for non-payment of an unsatisfied balance, shall not exceed the maximum term of imprisonment to which the prisoner might have been subjected if the unsatisfied balance had constituted the original amount adjudged to be paid by the conviction, e.g., if the defendant, ordered to pay a fine of £5 and 5s. for costs, or in default two months' imprisonment, pay to the governor of the prison 5s., will the term of imprisonment be reduced by three days or by one month; and, whether the provisions of Section 9 extend to the case of a person imprisoned for non-payment of any sum adjudged to be paid by an order (as distinguished from a conviction) either when the sum is a civil debt or otherwise, and whether the sum adjudged be for penalties under Section 34 of The Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, or otherwise for costs only.
§ SIR M. WHITE RIDLEYThe answer to both paragraphs is in the negative. Reduction of imprisonment is earned by payment after committal of a proportionate part of the sum for which the prisoner stands committed, whether or not the committal has been altered under the provisions of the Summary Jurisdiction Act referred to.