§ 24. Mr. Loughlinasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will consider amending legislation to ensure that prison sentences shall not be imposed on persons charged with minor acts of civil disobedience.
§ Mr. R. A. ButlerNo, Sir. People cannot be exempted from the normal consequences of breaking the law or disobeying the courts because they are doing so to attract support for their opinions.
§ Mr. LoughlinIs the Home Secretary aware that on 2nd May Southend magistrates sentenced thirteen anti-nuclear demonstrators to six months' imprisonment? Is he also aware that one of those sentenced was an old lady of 70, that another was a mother with the care of children, and another was a boy of 19? Does he not think that those sentences are monstrous, and will he give further consideration to amending legislation to see that this does not happen again?
§ Mr. ButlerI understand that the time for a possible appeal has not yet run out, and I would therefore rather not comment on those cases.
§ Mr. BrockwayIn view of the evidence which the right hon. Gentleman has given us today of the overcrowded conditions of our prisons, will he not consider some other methods of dealing with these minor offences committed on grounds of principle rather than that of putting these people into prison with habitual criminals and others?
§ Mr. ButlerIt is not I who put them into prison. This is a matter for justice and the courts. It is not always essential for them to go into prison if they do not want to, but very often they seek to go into prison because they feel so strongly about what they are doing. I must leave this matter to the operation of the courts and the possibility of appeal.