HC Deb 15 May 1902 vol 108 cc378-9
MR. TULLY

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether in framing the new prison rules it is proposed to make arrangements by which prisoners convicted under the operations of the Criminal Law and Procedure (Ireland) Act will be treated in a different manner from prisoners convicted under the ordinary law; and whether copies of the altered prison rules have been supplied to the prisoners at present serving their sentences.

MR. WYNDHAM

All prisoners in Ireland are being classified as in England; but prisoners cannot be treated as a separate class on the ground that they have been convicted under a particular statute. Prisoners are not entitled to copies of the rules, but an abstract of the regulations relating to the treatment of prisoners is posted up in each cell. The hon. Member for East Mayo having recently made inquiries on the subject, I find that he was allowed to exercise by himself in Dundalk prison in 1888. This was done on medical grounds; he was in hospital. It is within the discretion of the governor to allow any prisoner of any class to exercise by himself or to allow several prisoners of the same class to exercise with each other and apart from the rest of the class.

MR. DILLON (Mayo, E.)

Has the attention of the right hon. Gentleman been called to the fact that there was a general regulation applying to all prisoners convicted under the Coercion Act that they should wear their own clothes and not be exercised with other prisoners?

MR. WYNDHAM

The rule as to wearing their own clothes was affected by a general change in the prison regulations which authorised all prisoners, whether convicted under that or any other statute, to wear their own clothes if there was no reason for making them wear prison dress. There was no general regulation that prisoners under the Crimes Act should be treated as a separate class. The hon. Member himself was afforded certain privileges, which it was in the discretion of the governor to confer.

MR. TULLY

Why were alterations against the Coercion Act prisoners made in the new rules issued the other day?

MR. WYNDHAM

The rules have been altered to bring them into line with the rules in force in English prisons.