§ 20. Sir John Mellorasked the Home Secretary whether his attention has been called to certain cases in which prisoners after conviction have requested the court, if sentencing to penal servitude, to pass sentence of not less than four years; whether he is aware that the purpose of such requests is to secure committal to a prison other than the local prison and that such requests have been granted; and whether he will, if recommended by the court, exercise the power to select the prison to which any prisoner is to be committed, conferred upon him by Section 17 (3) of the Criminal Justice Administration Act, 1914, in order to obviate the imposition of a term of penal servitude longer than the court would otherwise direct?
§ Sir S. HoareApart from the case to which my hon. Friend referred in his question on the 3rd instant, there appear to have been two other cases in which a convicted prisoner has made such a request. In both those cases the prisoner subsequently petitioned for a reduction of sentence, and after consultation with the Recorder concerned, arrangements were made for the prisoner's release at a date corresponding to the sentence which it was originally proposed to pass. I do not think that these isolated cases afford any sufficient reason for altering the arrangements for the classification of prisoners sentenced to penal servitude which were adopted after full consideration in 1932.
§ Sir J. MellorDoes not my right hon. Friend consider that the recent case at Birmingham Quarter Sessions proves the absurdity of the courts having to increase the sentence of penal servitude in order to determine the prison to which the prisoner shall he committed?
§ Sir S. HoareNo, Sir; these are exceptional cases, and I cannot place any generalisation of that kind upon them.