§ 3. Mr. Keelingasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has now decided to modify the rule of the Prison Commissioners that prisoners' notebooks, other than those used for educational purposes, must not be taken away on discharge.
§ Mr. EdeI have come to the conclusion that any amendment of the rule referred to should be considered as part of a wider problem raising questions fundamental to prison administration; such, for example, as the question whether prisoners should be allowed to undertake remunerative work in their spare time. It would not, I think, be wise to make any change in the rule without having the implications of a change examined by the Advisory Council on the Treatment of Offenders, of which Mr. Justice Birkett is Chairman, and I am referring the matter accordingly to the Council for their advice.
§ Mr. KeelingWould the Home Secretary agree that if any great work of literature should be written in prison it is desirable that it should not perish?
§ Mr. EdeI hope that no great work of literature will perish, but I have no reason to think that, apart from one or two obvious examples, any great harm has been done by the existing rule. I am, however, examining it most sympathetically.