§ 92. Mr. JOWETTasked if the relatives and friends of prisoners recently sen- 952 tenced at Clerkenwell Sessions are being refused permission to visit them?
§ Mr. McKENNAIf the question refers to the ordinary visits allowed to the friends of prisoners, the reply is in the negative. The prisoners in question will be entitled to a visit at the end of a month provided that their conduct continues to be good.
§ 93. Mr. JOWETTasked the Home Secretary if he is aware that complaints are being made by suffragists in regard to Vine Street, Rochester Row, and Cannon Row police stations that the cells in which prisoners are placed pending their trial in the Police Court are dirty, in-sanitary, and ill-ventilated, and that in case of women remand prisoners a male warder is in charge of the cells during the night, and that plank beds are supplied with very dirty rugs for bedding; and, if so, what steps he is taking to remove the cause of these complaints?
§ Mr. McKENNAThe Commissioner of Police reports that the cells at the stations named are not dirty, insanitary, or ill-ventilated. The beds are plank beds, which are supplied with clean and suitable bedding. A male warder is never in charge of female cells, a matron being always in attendance when women are detained. I may add that remand prisoners are never detained overnight at any police station.
§ Mr. W. THORNEHas the right hon. Gentleman any intention of doing away with the plank bed?
§ Mr. McKENNAI would like to have notice of that question.
§ 94. Mr. JOWETTasked the Home Secretary if he is aware of the complaints which are being made by suffragists that male and female prisoners are conveyed to and from their respective prisons together in prison vans which are overcrowded; and, if the complaints are justified, what steps he is taking to have this state of things altered?
§ Mr. McKENNAI am informed by the Commissioner of Police that the prison vans are not overcrowded. Female prisoners are always conveyed in closed compartments entirely separate from the males. Prisoners for whom there is not sufficient room in the van are conveyed to prison in cabs.
§ 95. Mr. JOWETTasked, concerning the conveyance of a suffragist from Holloway prison to Bow Street last Thursday, how many compartments were contained in the prison van in which she made the journey; the number and sex of the persons confined in each compartment; and the offences with which they were charged?
§ Mr. McKENNAThe lady in question was conveyed in one van part of the way, and in another for the remainder of the journey. I cannot, in reply to a question, give full particulars of all the prisoners conveyed in the same van, but I may say that in the first van she was in a compartment by herself, and in the second van in a compartment with another woman. The charge against the latter was one of soliciting. The sexes are always separated in the prison vans.
§ 98. Earl WINTERTONasked if Miss Sylvia Pankhurst, when being charged with an offence at Rochester Row Police Court, Westminster, assaulted a police officer by throwing ink at him and striking him in the face that the police officer intimated that he did not intend to proceed against her for assault; and if there is any precedent for the police authorities refraining from prosecuting a prisoner for assaulting one of their officers?
§ Mr. McKENNAThe facts are as stated. There are innumerable precedents of prosecutions not being taken for petty assaults on police officers.
§ Earl WINTERTONIs it then intended in future to adopt this sort of procedure in the case of ordinary prisoners as it is with these wealthy disorderly agitators?
§ Mr. McKENNAAs I have said, there are innumerable precedents for not prosecuting in cases of this sort in regard to offenders of all ranks and classes, and of both sexes.
§ Earl WINTERTONDoes the right hon. Gentleman say that it is a trivial offence to throw ink at an inspector and hit him in the face?
§ Mr. McKENNAThe offence in this case was a petty one; it is not worth the serious attention of the Noble Lord.