§ SIR WILLIAM BULL (Hammersmith)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will give details as to the prison treatment of women suffragists committed in default of providing sureties for good behaviour, under the heads: prison uniform, dietary, correspondence, visits, exercises, association, remission of sentences, and punishments.
§ * MR. GLADSTONEThe suffragist prisoners, like other second division female prisoners, wear a distinctive dress. Their diet is that prescribed for the second division by the rules for local prisoners made on the 2nd September, 1901, under the Prisons Act, 1898, the items of which are fully set out in the rules, with such additions or alterations as may be prescribed by the medical officer in individual cases. When the sentence exceeds one month, they may write and receive a letter and a visit once a month, and special letters and visits are allowed to all prisoners in connection with matters of urgent business. They are allowed to exercise for one hour daily, and to work in association for a time daily whenever associated labour can be arranged. In common with all prisoners, they can earn a remission of one-sixth of their sentences by good conduct and industry, if they are sentenced to more than one month's imprisonment. They are subject to the ordinary Prison Rules (number 78, and following of the Rules for local Prisons) as to punishment for misconduct.