HC Deb 27 January 1966 vol 723 cc375-7
15. Mr. Lipton

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what provision is being made for a remand home in the London area for girls who at present have to be remanded to Holloway Prison.

The Minister of State, Home Office (Miss Alice Bacon)

The intention has been to rebuild Holloway as a remand centre when the women prisoners are accommodated elsewhere. My right hon. Friend is giving urgent consideration to the possibility of an earlier solution of this difficult problem.

Mr. Lipton

In the meantime, is it not quite scandalous that young girls on minor charges for which they are eventually bound over should be sent to Holloway for two or three weeks, sometimes more, where they are not segregated but mix with some of the worst women in England?

Miss Bacon

I think that my hon. Friend is a little confused between remand homes and remand centres. There is ample accommodation in remand homes in London for girls under the age of 17. Only when a magistrate signs an unruly certificate saying that a girl under 17 should not go to a remand home must she go to a remand centre. I would remind my hon. Friend that the question of remand centres was not in the immediate programme which we inherited, but four have been opened for women in other parts of the country in the last 18 months.

Sir Knox Cunningham

Would the right hon. Lady say how many prisoners Holloway Prison can hold and how many are there at present?

Miss Bacon

I have not the exact figures at the moment, but the numbers at Holloway have gone down considerably in the last few years. I think that a few years ago there were under 600 there. At the moment—I am speaking from memory—I think that there are approximately 250.

Mr. Sydney Silverman

Does not my right hon. Friend consider that a large part of this evil could be removed or largely mitigated if she would persuade the Lord Chancellor to encourage magistrates not to send young people on remand in custody in trivial cases? Is she aware that there is a great deal of public feeling about a number of magistrates who have been in the habit of doing this?

Miss Bacon

I note what my hon. Friend says and have a good deal of sympathy with it. I will certainly bring this matter to the attention of the Lord Chancellor.