§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILL (Donegal, S.)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on what grounds does he maintain that it is out of his power, having regard to the provisions of the Prisons Act of 1898, to remove prisoners from the second to the first division, having regard that by that Act the prerogative of mercy exercised by the Crown on his advice is not affected.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) I have not contended, and I do not contend, that there is an absolute legal obstacle to the exercise of the prerogative of mercy, in a particular case and for exceptional reasons, so as to effect the transfer of a prisoner from the second to the first division as an act of clemency by means of a conditional pardon. The prerogative of mercy, as such, is not altered by the Act of 1898. That Act, however, very widely extended the discretion of courts as regards prison treatment. Parliament established three divisions in local prisons, the second division being designed to enable prisoners of respectable character and antecedents to be completely separated from prisoners belonging to the criminal classes, and in express terms it entrusted to the Courts the discretion of placing each prisoner in one or other of the three divisions. In these circumstances it appears to me that to use the prerogative of mercy for the purpose of overriding the discretion given by law to the Court of trial, and deliberately exercised, would be wrong and unconstitutional action by the Government. Even though the prerogative might be exercised for special reasons as an act of clemency in an individual case, this clearly could not be done for the purpose of placing a whole class of prisoners in a privileged position. I may add that, with regard to the ladies who are now detained in Holloway Prison for offences against the ordinary law, I see no reason to think that the magistrates have exercised their discretion otherwise than rightly in directing that they shall be treated in the second division.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether seven ladies, imprisoned 253 for offences arising out of the woman suffrage agitation who were placed in the third division by the magistrate, have been removed by his authority from the third to the second division; and will he explain how it is within his discretion to exercise the power of removing prisoners from the third to the second division, but outside his discretion to remove prisoners from the second to the first division.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) Eleven ladies were removed from the third to the second division, but this was done by the magistrate, not by me. All I did was to draw the attention of the magistrate to the fact that these ladies belonged to the class of prisoners for whom the second division was intended. I have no executive power to remove prisoners from one division to another; and, as regards the seven ladies who are still detained in default of paying their fines, I do not propose to take any steps with a view to their being removed from the second division to the first.