§ 30. Mr. SPOORasked the Home Secretary on what principle the prison regulations were altered so as to abolish strict separate confinement during the first month for women sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour, while such separate confinement was retained for male prisoners having similar sentences?
§ Mr. SHORTTIt has always been the practice in English prisons to enforce sentences of hard labour less severely in the case of women than in the case of men. Separate confinement of women during the first month of their sentence has not been abolished, because it has never been imposed by the prison rules.