HC Deb 08 November 1962 vol 666 cc1140-2
19. Mr. Abse

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, in view of the inadequate numbers and sparse psychiatric qualifications within the prison medical service, and the present increase in penal institutions, he will, after consulting the Minister of Health, appoint a Committee of Inquiry into the structure and functions of the prison medical service and its relationship with the National Health Service.

Mr. Brooke

In consultation with my right hon. Friend the Minister of Health I have already made arrangements for a study of the future of the prison medical service, and this is now in train. I am glad to say that Professor Denis Hill, of the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, and Dr. Peter Scott, of the Maudsley Hospital, have been good enough to agree to assist officials of our two Departments in carrying out this study.

Mr. Abse

May I welcome the statement of the Home Secretary and hope that full attention will be given by this Committee to the manner in which the prison medical service is now so totally insulated and isolated from all the modern trends within the National Health Service, and that we may build up a service within our prisons which can play a proper rÔle in preventing further crime?

Mr. Brooke

I attach great importance to the prison medical service. In view of the initiation of this study, I hope that the hon. Member will forgive me if at this stage I do not say anything which might prejudice those who are making it. But I greatly look forward to receiving the findings of those making the study.

Miss Bacon

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that we greatly welcome his announcement, because there appears to be a good deal of disquiet about the whole prison medical service? Will he take into account a suggestion which I made some time ago—that a prison commissioner should be responsible for the prison medical service? Is he aware that at the time I thought that that suggestion had been received sympathetically, but that nothing has been done along those lines?

Mr. Brooke

Yes, I will consider that, but I think that the hon. Lady will excuse me if I first await the report of this study.

20. Mr. Abse

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many men in prisons and borstals during 1961 were placed in strait jackets; what was the maximum time such men were so confined; and why this practice continues to be extensively employed by the Prison Medical Service.

Mr. Fletcher-Cooke

The number of occasions on which a male inmate of a prison or borstal was placed in a loose canvas restraint jacket in 1961 was 86. The longest period for which the restraint was retained was 47¾ hours, excluding the compulsory break of one hour after 24 hours, and other short temporary releases. Standing Orders expressly enjoin that every effort must be made to avoid recourse to mechanical restraints; and a restraint may not be kept on longer than 24 hours without the authority of a member of the visiting committee or board of visitors. Subject to these provisions, the concurrence of the medical officer is required for the use of a restraint, and this is a matter for his professional judgment.

Mr. Abse

Is not the Under-Secretary aware that no self-respecting mental hospital today would even use a strait-jacket? In days when sedatives are available, do not these horrible facts, which the Under-Secretary has given, of the time which these people are kept under restraint indicate either the psychiatric illiteracy of our prison medical service, or, alternatively, that medical sanction is being given to clearly unlawful restraints? Is it not time that this medieval practice came to an end? If the practice has ended in mental hospitals, why not in prisons?

Mr. Fletcher-Cooke

Whatever the hon. Member may think about it, there is nothing illegal in it. It is a matter of professional judgment, and a prison medical officer has the same liberty of prescribing as any other medical doctor.

Mr. K. Robinson

Will the hon. and learned Gentleman say when the prison medical service will learn what mental hospitals learned long ago—that a strait-jacket only makes a violent man more violent?In these days of tranquillising drugs, is not this process a barbarous anachronism and ought we not to get rid of it?

Mr. Fletcher-Cooke

The hon. Member will have heard my right hon. Friend's announcement that the whole subject of the prison medical service is at present under discussion.

Mr. Abse

On a point of order. In view of the unsatisfactory nature of that reply, I beg to give notice that I shall raise the matter on the Adjournment.