§ 37. Mr. Yatesasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners are accommodated in Strangeways Prison, Manchester; how many are sleeping three in a cell; and why prisoners serving long sentences of preventive detention, including recent escapees, are sent to this prison.
§ Major Lloyd-GeorgeNine hundred and fifty-eight men prisoners (of whom 273 are sleeping three in a cell) and 152 women prisoners. Those of the prisoners who recently escaped who were serving sentences of preventive detention were still in the first stage of the sentence, which stage, in accordance with the Prison Rules, 1949, is to be served in a local prison.
§ Mr. YatesDoes not the Minister realise that when men are sent for such long sentences as 12 years, as in the case of one escapee, it is thrusting them into conditions quite contrary to those which the Act intended they should be thrust into? Will the Minister look into the matter and see that men serving long sentences are not kept in local prisons where conditions are as appalling as his answer has described?
§ Major Lloyd-GeorgeThere are three stages, the first of which is required under the rules, to be spent in a local prison. The average time spent there, depending on the conduct of the prisoner, is about a year. Then there is a second stage. In any case not more than two years are spent in the first stage.
§ Mr. L. M. LeverDo not the facts revealed in this case justify an inquiry into the conditions?
§ Major Lloyd-GeorgeI do not think so.
§ 38. Mr. Yatesasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he is aware of the dissatisfaction caused to prisoners at Parkhurst by the present method of preventive detention; what modification of existing rules have taken 557 place at this prison and if he will cause an inquiry to be made into the present methods, with a view to ensuring that prisoners serving such long terms of imprisonment are not without hope of rehabilitation.
§ Major Lloyd-GeorgeI am aware that the provisions of the Prison Rules governing admission to the third stage of a sentence of preventive detention and consequent eligibility for earlier release on licence are not popular with the prisoners at Parkhurst. The working of these provisions, which were designed to link the date of release to some extent with the prisoner's prospects of rehabilitation, is under close study, but I think that it is too soon yet to decide that they have failed and should be replaced.
I am not clear to what the hon. Member is referring in the second part of his Question: the only respect in which Prison Rules have been modified at Parkhurst by administrative action is that the Prison Commissioners have recently given directions for some mitigation of the conditions of the penal grade and of the maximum period for which it may be awarded by the prison governor.
§ Mr. YatesWhile I appreciate that the Minister is looking into this matter, may I ask whether he is aware—I speak as having recently visited Parkhurst Prison—that there is no single cause of unrest and disturbance greater than the prisoners' feeling that they have no hope whatsoever of rehabilitation because exemplary conduct is not taken into consideration? Outbreaks of violence have occurred from time to time as a result of this feeling of injustice. Will not the Minister really make an inquiry so as to give the House some clear idea whether or not there should be a change in the rules?
§ Major Lloyd-GeorgeWhile I agree with the latter part of the hon. Gentleman's remarks, I can only say that the whole matter is being considered at this moment.