§ 31. Lieut. - Colonel Lord HENRY CAVENDISH - BENTINCKasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether Joseph Charles Fitt, a boy of sixteen years of age, who was sentenced to death last November for the murder of a child 585 of under two years of age, but whose sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life, is being detained in solitary confinement in Mountjoy Prison; and whether, in view of the fact that he was under sixteen years of age at the time of the crime, that the evidence as to the cause of the child's death was not conclusive, that no evidence was called as to the mental state of the boy, and it appears to be very doubtful whether he is responsible for his actions, he will give instructions for his immediate removal from prison to some place where he may receive, under suitable conditions, training of a reformative nature?
Mr. HENRYThe boy is detained in Mountjoy Prison, but not in solitary confinement. He was removed from Maryborough Convict Prison to Mountjoy Prison, where he is receiving modified Borstal treatment so far as is compatible with the character of his crime and the nature of his sentence.