§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been directed to the statements of Mr. J. W. Logan, who was for many years a Member of this House, that the ladies, of whom his daughter is one, who were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment in connection with the agitation for woman suffrage, are placed in solitary confinement for twenty-three hours out of the twenty-four, have prison dress, have coarse prison food to eat, are not allowed to have letters or books or newspapers, except one book a week from the prison library, which they are not allowed to read until after 5 p.m., and that the one hour out of the twenty-four in which they are not in solitary confinement is spent half in chapel and the remaining half at exercise in a yard where they are not allowed to speak to any person; in what respects, if any, does this punishment differ from the prison discipline enforced on prisoners guilty of heinous crimes; how many 848 ladies are at present subject to this treat ment for offences of a political character which has been inflicted on them in the discretion of a magistrate; and whether he will in these cases advise the exercise of the prerogative of the Crown for the removal or reduction of the cruel and humiliating incidents of such an imprisonment.
§ MR. GLADSTONEThe prisoners are treated as all other prisoners in the second division. They are in separate confinement for about twenty-two and a half hours out of the twenty-four, one hour being given to exercise and about half an hour to chapel; they wear the authorised dress for the second division; are given the same diet as offenders of the first division who do not maintain themselves; they are not allowed to converse with each other, nor to receive letters until they have been in prison one month. They are allowed two library books a week. They may read these at meal hours and after working hours. This punishment differs from that of prisoners "convicted of heinous crimes" in the following particulars: The diet of the latter is not so good, and for the first seven days not so plentiful. They are not allowed letters until they have served two months, and they are not allowed library books until they have served one month, and then only one per week. They are not altogether separated from other criminals. There were twenty-one of the suffragist prisoners yesterday, but as any of them can secure their release at any time by giving security for good behaviour, I cannot say whether the number is the same now. I cannot advise the exercise of the prerogative of mercy.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLAre these ladies, whom the right hon. Gentleman has termed criminals, compelled to wear prison clothes formerly worn by ordinary women criminals?
§ MR. GLADSTONEThey are under the rules which govern the second division.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLHave they not, as a matter of fact, worn the cast-off clothes of other prisoners?
§ MR. GLADSTONEI really cannot quite say. Of course, new clothing cannot be supplied to all the prisoners who come in, but every care is taken that the clothing should be supplied in a state of perfect cleanliness.
§ MR. WILLIAM REDMOND (Clare, E.)Are these ladies obliged to take whatever exercise they get practically in association with those who have been convicted of ordinary criminal offences?
§ MR. GLADSTONEThat is not the case. They are kept apart from ordinary criminals.
§ MR. KEIR HARDIEDo they have a separate exercise ground or simply march round with the other inmates of the prison?
§ MR. GLADSTONEThey are carefully kept from association with the ordinary prisoners.
§ MR. BOWLES (Lambeth, Norwood)Has the right hon. Gentleman reason to believe that any one of these ladies has herself made a complaint?
§ MR. GLADSTONEI have received no complaint myself from any one of them.
§ MR. LEIF JONES (Westmoreland, Appleby)What good object is served by limiting the number of books allowed to these ladies?
§ MR. GLADSTONEThat is a Question that might be asked in regard to the general prison rules, and I am not at all satisfied that the rule is adequate, but I do not think the question necessarily arises now.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLAre the books given to these ladies only such books as are in the prison library—goody-goody Sunday-school books?
§ MR. LUPTONMay I ask——
§ *MR. SPEAKEROrder, order. Notice must be given of any further Questions.