TREATMENT OF DEBTORS IN PRISON. (Hansard, 9 May 1899)

§ SIR CHARLES CAMERON (Glasgow, Bridgeton)

I beg to ask the Secretary of 151 State for the Home Department, whether his attention has been called to a statement made by the Judge of the Birmingham County Court on 1st May, in connection with the circular which he had received from the Home Office, acquainting him with certain important alterations coming into operation that day on the treatment of debtor prisoners; whether debtors under the new rules, instead of being allowed to obtain their own food, drink, and bedding outside, will be restricted to the allowance of food prescribed for offenders of the first division who did not maintain themselves; whether they will now be required to work either at their own trade or profession, or at work of an industrial or manufacturing nature, and will receive their earnings subject to a deduction for the cost of maintenance and for the use of implements when furnished by the prison; whether a debtor will now be confined to his cell at all times except when at chapel or exercise, and will be allowed to receive only one visit and to write and receive only one letter per week; whether the Judge is correctly reported as having stated that it appeared to him that the alterations made the punishment much more severe, and brought debtors more closely to the status of criminals, and that he thought that twenty-one days under the new rules would be about equivalent to forty days under the old; is he aware that the Judge accordingly restricted the period of committal in cases of judgment summonses to twenty-one days; and, whether he will lay the Home Office circular referred to by the Judge upon the Table of the House.