§ MR. FLOWER (Bradford, W.)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, in view of the fact that over 70 per cent. of the female prisoners in the gaols of this country have been previously convicted, he will consider the desirability of augmenting the lectures given by lady visitors last winter by practical teaching in laundry, cookery, and hygiene, which would fit the prisoners on leaving to earn their living; also whether he would again consider the advantages to be gained by the appointment of a female prison inspector.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Akers Douglas.) The industries carried out under skilled instruction as a part of the regular prison routine for female prisoners furnish practical teaching in laundry work and cooking, and with regard to "hygiene," as much as is possible is done by including "sanitation" as one of the subjects of a course of lectures which have now for some months past been delivered by lady visitors to female prisoners in the Metropolis according to a regular and approved plan. It is hoped to extend, in due course, the good work that is being done by lady visitors in London in this 687 respect to other prisons throughout the country. As regards the second paragraph of the Question. I have seen no reason to differ from the adverse view expressed by my predecessor in answer to a similar suggestion from the hon. Member on the 31st January, 1902.†