§ 15. Mr. JOHNSTONasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will place in the Library of this House any evidence furnished him in recent years by prison medical officers showing the improvements in physique and health observable in the prisoners in gaols in England and Wales as a result of the superior dietary in the prisons over the dietary obtainable by the working classes outside the prisons?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. Geoffrey Lloyd)Prison medical officers are not in a position to make any such comparison and I know of no evidence which is available or could be obtained on the point. It must be remembered that the number of persons received in prison represents only a small fraction of the population, that a large proportion of those received are only detained for short periods, and that if improvement takes place in the health of a prisoner, this may be due to a variety of causes.