HC Deb 22 June 1933 vol 279 cc935-7
Brigadier-General SPEARS

(by Private Notice) asked the Home Secretary whether his attention has been called to the case of Thomas Parker, who died in Winson Green Prison whilst serving a, sentence of 14 days' imprisonment for sleeping out; if inquiry has been made into the question whether this man suffered from claustrophobia; whether he will issue a circular recommending that persons so afflicted should not be condemned to solitary confinement; and why Thomas Parker was not medically examined after the fall which caused his death, before he was locked up in the solitary cell?

Mr. HACKING

The circumstances in which this prisoner came by his death were fully investigated at an inquest held by the Birmingham City Coroner on the 13th and 14th instant, when a verdict of accidental death was returned. The prisoner was seen by the medical officer on his admission to prison and again on the morning when he was charged with insubordinate conduct in the exercise yard, and there appears to be no ground for thinking that he was suffering from claustrophobia. The prison medical officers are well acquainted with this particular condition, and special arrangements are made for the treatment of prisoners who on medical grounds are unfit for the ordinary prison routine. The prison rules provide that no prisoner shall be placed in close confinement unless the medical officer has certified that he is fit to undergo such punishment, and, in accordance with this provision the prisoner had been seen by the medical officer on the morning in question and certified as fit for dietary punishment and close confinement. The prison rules also require the medical officer to visit once a day every prisoner who is under punishment, and this prisoner would in due course have been visited by the medical officer; but, as appears from the evidence at the inquest, the officers who took him to the cell did not recognise that he had sustained serious injury. I would take this opportunity of expressing on behalf of the Secretary of State and the prison authorities sincere sympathy with the prisoner's relatives in respect of this sad accident.

Brigadier-General SPEARS

May I in the first place ask my hon. Friend whether he thinks it right that a man should be given 14 days' imprisonment for sleeping out? In the second place, I gather from his answer that the prison authorities declare, and have so informed him, that this man did not suffer from claustrophobia. Is my hon. Friend aware that there appears in the public Press a report to the effect that the prison doctor gave it as his opinion that this man was suffering from claustrophobia; and is it not inflicting torture to put into a cell a man who is suffering from such a complaint? Furthermore, is it permissible that a man who has sustained a fall of the nature described at the inquest should have been thrown into a cell and not examined medically until he was found to be dead in his cell subsequently?

Mr. HACKING

The hon. and gallant Member has asked me three questions. First, whether it was right that the man should be sent to prison for 14 days? That is no concern of the Home Office; that is a question of justice. In regard to whether the man was suffering from claustrophobia, the medical officer of the prison, who knows this complaint and is very familiar with it, decided that he was not suffering from that complaint, and, moreover, I would point out that the man created a disturbance by shouting when he was in the open air at exercise, in addition to any disturbance he might have made in the cell, which rather went to show that he was not suffering from that complaint. The final question put to me was in connection with his fall. The prison officers who conducted this man to his cell were brushed aside and the man stumbled and tell downstairs. It was not considered by the officers that he had damaged himself; there was no mark that they could see when they placed him in the cell. Naturally, he would have been examined shortly after he entered the cell by the medical officer. Shortly after he entered the cell, about 10 minutes, he was seen to be in a curious position. The door was unlocked, and the man was found to be dead.

Mr. LAWSON

Is the hon. Gentleman's Department making any attempt to investigate these cases in which men are being sent to prison for sleeping out in view of this very bad piece of bungling?

Mr. HACKING

I cannot accept the hon. Gentleman's statement that there has been a bad piece of bungling.