HL Deb 05 July 1897 vol 50 cc1037-44
*EARL STANHOPE

called attention to the recent Report of the Rev. G. Merrick to Her Majesty's Commissioners of Prisons, on the operations of Discharged Prisoners' Aid Societies. It would be in the recollection of the house that the former Home Secretary (Mr. ASQUITH) appointed a Departmental Committee to inquire into the discipline and procedure in prisons. That Committee was presided over by Mr. Herbert Gladstone, and reported last year. Among other matters included in their Inquiry was the operation of these Societies, and upon this point the Committee recommended that the Government grant should be increased and extended to such institutions as were conducted on approved methods for the aid of discharged prisoners. Last Session he asked what action the present Home Secretary proposed to take in regard to this Report, and in reply was informed that a full inquiry would be made into the matter. That inquiry had now taken place, and it was in consequence of the Report of the Rev. G. Merrick, who was appointed by the Government to make the inquiry, that he a now desired to briefly call the attention of their Lordships to the subject. The small Blue-hook containing the Report of the Commissioner appointed by the Home Office pointed out that in every department, and in every matter of administration these Societies differed. There were a great many good societies, as their Lordships were aware, and the one at Maidstone, in which he was personally interested, did its work admirably and with much good result in relieving discharged prisoners; there were 437 cases relieved last year. It was also evident from reports of its operation that the Society at Birmingham was doing its work well. But as regards many societies, not named in the Blue-book, they were not worthy the name of associations. Their Lordships must be interested in the general question, for there was a society for every prison district. Some of the societies issued no reports, held no annual meetings, and distributed no grants. Forty societies were very glad to avail themselves of the assistance of the Governor and Chaplain of the jail for information, and many availed themselves of the services of the Governor and Chaplain as a subcommittee of inquiry into cases before relief was given. Others declined to use any sub-committee. It was of course most desirable that the visiting justices should be thoroughly acquainted with the cases they visited, and be able to offer advice and assistance as to what form of relief should be given to prisoners; but in many associations visiting justices were not members of the committees. Then there were a great many societies who would not co-operate with other adjoining societies. There were about, three-fourths who might be said to be in favour of co-operation, but there were very few indeed who carried it out so that prisoners coming from an adjoining district should receive relief, and the members of the adjoining society were sometimes looked upon as "intruders." This might be an extreme precaution against overlapping, but it prevented all co-operation. Some of these societies had adequate funds, and there were 15 which received no Government grant at all. There was one point in the Report which he must allude to. The Commissioners said,— An example is set in the country which is worthy of complimentary notice, and Worthy, too, of considerable emulation. The Grand Jury send to the Aid Society about £20 yearly, a sum which remains after the expenses connected with their dinners have been paid. He did not think there was any other instance of such a help coming from a Grand Jury. The rules were largely uniform, but the administration of the rules was not at all unifrom. The chief objects which the societies had tried to carry out was to find employment and temporary lodgings for a discharged prisoner, or, if he had a respectable home, to send him to his home. In many cases where there were no relatives emigration had been found to work extremely well. In order to carry out these arrangements, there must be agents, and the great majority of the societies did employ agents. Thirteen of the societies, however, employed the police, and he thought that was very much to be deprecated. He should say it was extremely discouraging for these discharged prisoners to be met at the prison gate by the police and not by a private or paid agent. There was sometimes, as was quoted in the Report, quite a scramble for a prisoner, because the Prison Gate Mission also tried to take possession of the prisoner to the exclusion of the authorised agents of these societies. That, of course, was to be deprecated. That was overlapping, and Mr. Merrick reported against anything of the kind. The prisoners' gratuities were sometimes not interfered with at all. Sixteen of the societies did not touch the gratuities; others took them and paid them out by small contributions at stated intervals; while others, again, paid the railway fare out of them. This was quite in accordance with the prison rules laid down under the Act of 1877. There was one thing in regard to the relief given by these agents which ought to be noted. The Report said that sometimes the disbursing of a small sum of money cost almost as much again. It may be mentioned," the Report said, "that in the case of one society it cost £6 2s. Md. to disburse £8 12s. 7½d., the total amount expended on behalf of the prisoners. Another instance may be cited. The agent was paid £60 for disbursing £67; no less than £35 of this went for doles of food, while £12 went for lodgings, £7 for railway fares, and about £13 for tools and gratuity balances. These were cases which did not deserve assistance from the Government. It was only societies that administered their funds well, and could prove that they were doing really good work that deserved a Government grant. The Government grant at presnt was only £1,500 altogether, and that had not been changed since the Government took over the prisons 20 years ago. That amounted to about 6d. a head, and it was no doubt in consequence of that that the Departmental Committee had made the recommendation he had referred to. The suggestions and recommendations made by the Rev. G. Merrick were shortly these—that each society should be registered, and if it was not efficient it should lose its certificate; that sub-committees should visit the prisons weekly; that voluntary or paid agents should be secured, and that the police should never be employed; that a Government grant should be awarded to a society according to its efficiency; that these societies should disburse the prisoners' gratuities in kind rat her than in money, and that there should be prepared a list of all the efficient societies for the aid of discharged prisoners. He hoped his noble Friend would Le able to give him some satisfactory answer to the question he had put.

*LORD NORTON

said he should like to say just one word upon the subject of these societies before the Government made answer. He took a strong paternal interest in the working of discharged prisoners' aid, having himself introduced the Act, now, he thought, 40 years ago, and having been engaged during the whole of the time in the administration of one of the largest of these societies in Birmingham. The consideration the Report rather lost sight of was that these societies were voluntary and benevolent societies, and they would lose altogether the zeal and usefulness with which they were worked if the, Government took them up, or if they were in any way put into the hands of the police. ["Hear, hear!"] Societies of this kind were established for a very simple and restricted purpose—namely, to find employment for prisoners on their discharge from prison. This work had been done by private effort, slightly subsidised from the Treasury with gratuities earned in prison; but the Report seemed to take altogether a different view of these societies, supposing them to have a much larger scope of action. It spoke throughout of taking charge of prisoners after their discharge, lodging them, finding employment for them, supervising them, and even taking charge of their wives and families. In fact, in the words of the Report, it was a sort of "clerical shepherdising" of prisoners. That was not the object of the Act, and he believed, if that purpose were carried out it would do infinite mischief to the prisoners themselves and to society at large. The sooner the prisoner, after his discharge, was free, and not taken charge of by the public, the better for himself, and the inure easily would he get employment, and the more chance he had of retrieving his character. But the Report evidently took this mistaken view throughout by the terms it used. It railed these discharged men "ex-prisoners," as though they were always to retain the stigma of prison. The object was that they should be perfectly independent, and that their employment should not be hindered by any prison character at all. A hove all things, he hoped these societies would be kept from all connection with the police. He should oppose any further aid being given to the societies by the Government if that aid were to be connected with the Government taking control of, or interfering with, them. It would ruin them. The society with which he was connected in Birmingham wanted no money. Its subscriptions were perfectly ample. Its success was indicated by the fact that more than 90 per cent. of the men they had helped to get employment for after their discharge lied succeeded in after life, and that this had been done at an average cost of per case. The committee of the society consisted of subscribers and of the visiting justices, who were generally subscribers, and who were the men they should look to to carry out these institutions far more than the Government. These were the men who should be trusted much more for all prison interests than they were. They were the men to carry out specially benevolent work of this kind. As to the cooperation which the noble Earl most wisely said was a very important thing, he would say that for some time after the Act was passed, there were only one or two of these societies. It was, however, pressed upon the public that they could not be really successful unless there were kindred societies connected with every prison in the kingdom. There were societies at this moment connected with every prison, but some of them were no doubt, as reported, ill-conducted. What was the remedy? Mulct them of the Government grant till reformed, but do not upset the whole system because a few of the societies were at fault. He believed there was nothing that had done more for the emptying of the gaols of this country than the reformatories, which had broken up the nurseries of crime, and the discharged prisoners' aid societies, which had checked to a great extent the return to crime of those who had been once discharged from prison. ["Hear, hear!"]

LORD BELPER

said he recognised very fully not only the great interest which the noble Earl and the noble Lord took in this question, but also the very general interest in the country in the excellent work that these societies had been doing, mainly by voluntary efforts. He could say that with all the more truth because he was himself very much interested in a society in his own county, and had fur many years been fully alive to the very excellent work they had done at a very small cost in enabling discharged prisoners to seek an honest living. Since the early part of the Session this question had not only been fully considered by the Prison Commissioners, but it had also been before the Home Office and the Treasury. A scheme had been prepared by the Prison Commissioners and received the approval of the Secretary of State for the Home Department and of the Treasury, which gave practical effect to a large part of the most important of the recommendations which were made in Mr. Merrick's Report. Their Lordships would not expect him to go in detail into the 60 recommendations which Mr. Merrick made, but he might say in the clearest manner that the Government fully recognised the excellent voluntary work which had been done by these societies, and did not wish by any suggestions they made in any way to interfere with or to harass the societies in their own manner of working, and did not wish to lay down hard conditions, which naturally the societies might not be willing to accept. ["Hear, hear!"] The object of the Government in the proposals they desired to see carried out was to guide and assist the societies in making their work as efficient as possible. The Government wished to see the societies properly constituted and managed in a businesslike manner, holding annual general meetings and monthly meetings of the committees, and possessing rules that should be approved by the Commissioners. If the societies fulfilled such general conditions it was intended that they should receive a certificate from the Secretary of State, and be enabled to draw the grant which it was proposed the Government should give. It was suggested that the grant should be made at the rate of £2 10s. for every 100 prisoners discharged from the prison with which a society was in connection—that was, 6d. a head. There was this proviso, however, that in no case would the grant exceed the amount which was raised by private subscriptions. It was also suggested that, in the case of there being any local prison charity, the amount actually recived annually from such charity should be deducted from the amount which would be paid by the Gov-eminent. Some societies had hitherto been mulcted of the actual revenue of the prison charity, although they did not receive the whole of that revenue. It was considered it would not be fair there should be deducted from the amount paid by the Government more than the amount the societies actually received. ["Hear, hear!] Hitherto the grant had amounted to from £1,500 to £2,000, but he understood that in the future it would amount to about £2,700. ["Hear, hear!"] Reference had been made to the question of co-operation between the different societies. That was a point which had not been lost sight of; indeed it was one specially referred to in the report of Mr. Merrick. It would, he was sure, be a matter of satisfaction to the House that Mr. Merrick had received the permanent appointment of visiting chaplain to Her Majesty's goals, and that one of his special duties would be to put himself in communication with the societies and assist them in the management. In that way Mr. Merrick would be able to bring the different societies into touch with one another and organise a more systematised method of management than that which at present obtained.

*EARL STANHOPE

asked whether the Report of the Prison Commissioners would be laid on the Table?

LORD BELPER

said that he would make inquiries on the point. At all events a circular would be issued to all the societies which would lay the suggestions down in definite terms. ["Hear, hear!"]