§ 12. Mr. Collinsasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the average number of prisoners serving sentences of preventive detention during the years 1949 and 1957, respectively; and what in each of those years was the total cost involved.
§ Mr. R. A. ButlerIn 1949 there was a daily average of 130 prisoners serving a sentence of preventive detention. The provisional average for 1957 is 1,311. I regret that separate figures for the cost of detaining preventive detention prisoners are not available. In 1949 the average cost for prisoners of all classes was £181 18s. 7d. The provisional average cost for 1957 is £341 19s. 11d.
§ Mr. CollinsIs the Home Secretary aware of the view that the great increase in the number of detainees is a handicap in fully implementing the hopes of rehabilitation implicit in preventive detention? Will he have regard also to the gross disparity of sentences inflicted in different courts—for example, ten years for stealing a chicken worth 16s. 2d.—and endeavour to find a way whereby there can be greater uniformity of sentence and the spirit and the letter of the Act can be carried out?
§ Mr. ButlerIt is not for me to comment on the sentences. I can only comment on the result, which is that the long-term sentences are bringing about, partly, the result to which the hon. Gentleman refers. As regards preventive detention as a whole, we are making some 569 special research into the effects of it, and I would rather await the result of that research before giving final answers.