HC Deb 26 April 1923 vol 163 c671
64. Mr. MIDDLETON

asked the Home Secretary if his attention has been drawn to the general dissatisfaction on the part of experts regarding the existing arrangements for persons remanded to prisons for mental observation and report, where they are detained as a rule in gated cells and subjected to the idle scrutiny of all prisoners and others passing the cells; and whether arrangements may be made for the use of the prison hospital for this purpose when it is not in use for sick persons or, alternatively, that some further experiments should be tried on the lines of the Birmingham scheme?

Mr. LOCKER-LAMPSON

Persons who are sent to prison for observation as to their mental state are usually put into the prison hospital, when the accommodation allows, but, if not, they are placed in cells provided for this purpose and are supervised by the hospital officers. These cells are gated, and it is found by experience that they are the most suitable. They are located in special parts of the prison where there are very few passers by. The extension of the Birmingham scheme, as regards segregation and observation, to other prisons, would involve structural alterations and the expenditure of large sums of money.