§ 69. Mr. BYRNEasked when the new conditions for Irish prisoners undergoing sentences of penal servitude will be put into operation; if the new rules will apply to prisoners at Maidstone and Wormwood Scrubbs; if he has yet considered the suggestion to allow them to wear their own clothes; if he is aware that the conditions of the Irish prisoners at Dartmoor are much worse than the lowest criminals; how many Irish prisoners are receiving 466 hospital treatment, and for how long; if he will announce the dietary scale of each prisoner; and if he will say the number under eighteen years of age?
Mr. SAMUELThe new conditions will come into operation as soon as the prisoners can be collected at Lewes. This will be as soon as all the necessary arrangements can be made, probably in two or three weeks' time. The Irish prisoners now at Maidstone and Wormwood Scrubs will be included. These prisoners will be excused from wearing prison dress when on transfer from one prison to another. It is not the fact that the conditions of the Irish prisoners are worse than those of the lowest criminals. I will inquire as to the prisoners receiving hospital treatment at Dartmoor. The convicts at Dartmoor are receiving the dietaries prescribed by the Rules of September, 1901. There are five Irish convicts under the age of eighteen.
§ Mr. BYRNEWill the right hon. Gentleman say what the Government hope to gain by keeping boys under eighteen years of age in prison? You made an order to release boys under eighteen.