PRISONS BILL. (Hansard, 2 August 1898)

* THE BISHOP OF WINCHESTER
I venture to trespass for a few moments on your Lordships' attention at this stage of the Prisons Bill. I should not otherwise have done so, but the facts are these. The Bill was before your Lordships' House for the first time on Thursday last, and it was read a second time on Friday, before it had even been circulated. Those, therefore, of your Lordships who reside at some distance from London were not in a position to take any part in the Debate upon the Second Reading. In these circumstances I hope I may be pardoned if I ask your Lordships' leave to say a few words about it now. The Bill is one of supreme importance, and the small amount of debate which it received in this House was due, no doubt, to the fact that it had already been elaborately considered and all its provisions thoroughly thrashed out elsewhere. The Home Secretary in introducing the Bill spoke of it as one of the largest Measures of the present Session, or 803 probably, of many Sessions. He described the present juncture as— an, opportunity far reviewing the whole field of our prison enactments, and for introducing legislation which, if it could not at the present moment absolutely enact a new code, should at all events tend in that direction. I cordially subscribe to the Home Secretary's account of the importance of the matter, and as one of those who have for some years given attention to the whole subject I am anxious to express my sense of the praise that is due both to the provisions of this Bill and to the more extended scheme which, it seems clear, must soon follow; for the Bill itself is a mere trifle, a mere shell, or husk, which contains the as yet invisible kernel. The Rules to be hereafter framed under this Bill are, of course, the thing that really matters, and upon the wording and working of those Rules everything, as time goes on, will depend. We are practically giving the Home Secretary a blank cheque, to be first filled up by drawing out the Rules, and then to be spent as the Rules are administered in the various prisons throughout the country. I believe, my Lords, that we are absolutely right in doing so. I believe there is no other way in which the changes which public opinion now desires to see effected in regard to our prisons can be properly and consistently and conclusively carried out. To alter Rules which have statutory authority, and which form part of an Act of Parliament, is a tedious and cumbersome process, but to alter Rules which depend upon the fiat of the Home Secretary for the time being is a considerably simpler process. Those concerned in the practical administration of our local and convict prisons will have simply now to ask the Home Secretary for such alterations as experience may from time to time show to be desirable, and no Home Secretary will, I feel sure, fail to respond to such requests from tried and competent officers. But, besides this, it will now be possible for him, as the years pass, to take such measures as may be necessary for giving effect to public opinion—and public opinion, my Lords, when this Bill is in operation, will be far better informed than it is now. The visiting committees, the lady visitors, 804 and the rest of the new or improved machinery, will spread a wholesome interest in the condition of our prison population, and thus a far wider public interest will be taken in the subject than has been taken heretofore. My Lords, I confidently believe there will be large, and drastic, and far-reaching changes introduced in these Rules, as the years go on. Ten years hence we shall see not, I suppose, less discipline, but a more intelligent and reasonable sort of discipline, and a far larger amount of variety introduced into the management of our prisons than is to be seen, to-day. Such a change, in my opinion, would be entirely for the public good. It may be said that this is mere nebulous prophecy. Turn then from prophecy to history, from, theory to fact. If we are asked whether public opinion is likely to bring about changes in such a direction, let our reply be a quiet examination of the stages, of our progress during the last decade. Take the Rules and the customs (many of them never formulated into Rules) which were prevalent in the management of our prisons 10 years ago. Then take the draft Rules, as drawn up when this Bill was first introduced into the other House of Parliament a few months ago. Then take the proposed Rules now printed for our information, as modified by the Debates which have taken place, both inside and outside the House, during the last few months. If you do that, you will see how rapid and how marked has been the educational process which has taken place. In this Bill, my Lords, and tin the draft Rules which accompany it, the Home Secretary is simply giving effect to what is desired and warranted by public opinion outside. As specified instances of what I mean, I would refer to the various stages of the Rules or provisions affecting solitary confinement, or, as it is sometimes euphemistically called, "seclusion"—or the provisions affecting letters to be received and written, or the regulations sanctioning the visits to be received by the prisoner, according to his character and antecedents. But the wholesome change I am referring to is noticeable, I think, not so much in positive enactments as in the marked tendency towards giving larger elasticity and greater freedom to those to whom the charge and 805 government of our prisoners is committed. The principle which lies behind all that is now being done is the fundamental principle that adequate weight should be given to the curative element in our prison administration, as well as to the punitive element. Hitherto the punitive element has been pushed to the front, while the curative treatment has been kept in the background; and I, for one, rejoice to see that to the curative system is given a larger place than it has ever had before in the Bill which is now before your Lordships for consideration. The endeavour to promote what I have called the curative system has been more marked—perhaps has had more emphasis given to it—in other countries than in our own. America, with characteristic enthusiasm, has gone in this direction considerably further than other countries have gone. The results are before us. Whether we are to attribute to the supposed comfort of some of the American prisons the fact that, while we in England have only got one person in prison out of every 1,764 of the population, the United States has one person in every 759, I do not know. But this I can say, that a careful perusal of the admirable Report of the Chairman of our own Prison Commission upon the State Prisons in America, with their Turkish baths, their gymnasiums, their musical instruments, and the rest, has convinced me that we should not be acting wisely were we at present to enter upon the somewhat far-reaching experiment which has been made in some of the American prisons. What we do want is a larger elasticity, first in the Home Office at headquarters, and then in the various prison departments throughout the country. Such elasticity, such power of adaptation, and even of experiment, this Bill, with its Rules, will render for the first time possible. There has, of course, for many years been a steady reaction going on against that rigid and inexorable uniformity which it was the principal object of the Bill of 1877 to introduce, and which was noticeable also in the previous legislation of 1865. Such rigidity, such introduction at least, of a sterner and more uniform system, may have been a necessary concomitant of the administrative changes made in these years. If so, it has, I think, done its work. The reaction in favour of more 806 elasticity has now come. Now, my Lords, one of the points I want to make is this: the new liberty we desire to see carries with it responsibility for our seeing that those who are called upon to use in our prisons those larger and more varied powers shall be made thoroughly well fitted for their task, and shall not be overtaxed in any way whatever in the performance of it. If the governor of any one of our prisons is to be fit for the increased responsibilities which will now be laid upon him, he must be a man who is not only keen and active and competent, but the man who has given attention to these matters, and who has learned to understand some of the very difficult and complicated problems which will be before him day by day, in the endeavour to give effect to the new Rules, which will allow him so much freedom of action. What applies to the governors applies also in their several degrees to the chaplains, the schoolmasters, and the warders, and so on, down to the very lowest officials. Therefore it is that I for one hail with satisfaction what the Prison Commissioners tell us as to the training schools and training system for our prison workers and administrators which has for some little time been in operation. I desire to see that system strengthened and increased, and I know that those who are most familiar with our prison system welcome every endeavour that is made to give more knowledge both intellectually and otherwise to the men who are to have the very responsible and difficult task laid upon them of giving effect to the rules which the Home Secretary is now about to place in their hands. During the last decade a great deal of absolutely new light has been thrown upon the whole question of our criminal statistics, and of the difficulties attending prison administration, and the dealing with criminals of such varied kinds. For a good many years statistics have been published, but with little use. The statistical tables which compose the portly Blue Book would be of little use were it not for the lucid and powerful preface with which they are annually accompanied, a preface which will richly repay the study of anyone who cares to devote an hour to understanding what is to be culled from the statistics which are 807 annually presented to us. Some of these statistical tables, say as to the origin of our criminal population, as to the trades, occupations, course of life, ages, and so on, of the various men and women who enter our prison gates, are impressive and suggestive to the highest degree; but, on the other hand, some would be very incomprehensive but for the annual introductory commentary to which I have already referred. For example, you turn to a table specifying the professions or occupations from which the criminals are respectively drawn, and you find to your surprise that the profession which furnishes the largest percentage of criminals is that of "journalists and authors," and the next to them in criminality come "accountants." This looks rather puzzling, until you learn from the introductory remarks that the table is compiled from the prisoners' own statements, and that the "accountant" is nothing of the sort, but probably a betting agent, and that probably the "authors and journalists" are gentlemen of nondescript occupation, who describe themselves in that manner, rather with the hope of attaining that eminence than with any evidence of having as yet reached it. These introductions and the statistics which accompany them are the sort of material which is now provided in ample store for the study and care of all those who are to administer in any capacity whatever the larger system which will be in operation when this Bill has become an Act. With such knowledge as will now be acquired, and by utilising the recorded experience of others, the curative process, which is even now going on, will every year become a more marked and important element in prison administration throughout the land. There is already, as your Lordships are no doubt aware, a steady diminution of the numbers occupying our prisons. In 1883 the average daily number in prisons was 27,140, in 1893 it was 18,233, and in 1896 it was 17,076—that is to say, in the course of a few years there was a fall of 35 per cent. in the number of persons who are in our prisons. My belief is that that fall will become very much more rapid, and the number in our prisons will become very much smaller when we have gone forward for a year or two upon the lines of careful classification, and of 808 almost unlimited freedom of experiment, which will be rendered practicable under the rules which will shortly, I suppose, be laid upon the Table of your Lordships' House. There is one clause in the Bill itself upon which I desire to say a single word. It is the clause which refers to the department of prison officers with whom the bishops have specially to deal—the prison chaplains. Till now the law has rendered it impossible in ordinary cases for a prison chaplain to hold at the same time any clerical office outside the prison walls. By the clause to which I am alluding that restriction is removed, and it will now be possible, if suitable arrangements can be made, that the same man may be exercising his functions as a prison chaplain and carrying on work of a clerical character outside the prison walls. The result of that will be infinitely to the advantage both of the prisoners and of the chaplain, and also, I believe, to the advantage of those to whom these clergy are ministering outside the prison walls. The larger experience of life gained by the chaplain in mixing as a parish priest with people outside will give freshness and variety to his prison ministry, and will thus be infinitely to the benefit of the inmates of the prisons, and at the same time the chaplain will have a frequent change from the depressing and sometimes exceedingly trying occupation to which he is at present bound to devote his whole time. Hereafter he and his colleagues—for of course the staff must be proportionally increased—will be able to devote a portion of their time to varied duties outside. The change is a wholesome part of a larger and more general change of plan. Our aim at this juncture is a high one. What we desire to do is to bring the interests of those out-side the prison walls and the interests of those inside the prison walls into harmony and touch in every possible way. This will be brought about partly by the boards of visitors enlarged in numbers and enlarged in power. The encouragement given to lady visitors will, among other gains, have this good result, that it will make a very large number of people outside the walls of our prisons know a great deal more than they know now, and care a great deal more than they care now, about what goes on within those walls. At present the average 809 British citizen is satisfied with the knowledge of the fact that within the high prison walls he occasionally sees there are some 17,000 or 18,000 of his fellow-citizens confined. He knows they are for the present kept out of mischief. He hopes and believes that within the prisons things generally are well arranged, and that is about all. But that ought not to be all. The greater interest taken outside in what goes on, within the prison for the benefit of those therein confined will be an enormous gain to the nation at large. If we find, as I observed in the statistics of a year or two ago, that out of 43,000 persons convicted in one year, 17,000, or about 41 cent., were under 21 years of age, we can see how important for the future it is that the curative process that I have spoken of should have every opportunity given it that can possibly be devised. My belief is that in years to come we shall be very thankful indeed for the enlarged powers which this Bill has given to the Home Secretary, and those who work under him. I give my hearty and cordial support to the Bill, and I ask your Lordships to go into Committee upon it now.

§ LORD BELPER
I only ask the House to allow me to say one or two words, and especially to express my regret that any unfortunate mistake should have occurred which prevented the House from having the opportunity of hearing the right reverend lord prelate upon the Second Reading of this Bill, especially as he is so competent to express an opinion upon this subject. The fact is that the Bill was circulated in the morning, though not with the early papers, but it was in the hands of your Lordships before it was read a second time, and I can assure your Lordships that there was no want of courtesy on my part in reading it a second time. The remarks which the right reverend prelate made have been followed with great interest. He referred in some little detail to the rules which form a substantial part of the Bill, and which practically, as to details, are almost the most important part of the Measure—but I think he gave credit to the Home Secretary for having a little more latitude in this matter than he really will have when he said we were 810 giving him a blank cheque. The fact is we are giving him a cheque, which, though a blank, to be filled in by him, will have to be countersigned by both Houses of Parliament, and in which the amount may be altered after he has settled it. In fact, as I pointed out, although there has been a discussion over the draft rules which the Home Secretary has already laid upon the Table of both Houses, this Act will not come into force until these rules have been laid upon the Table next Session, and there will be full opportunity for your Lordships to express any opinion you may wish to do upon the details of them. With regard to the other remarks of the right reverend prelate, I may perhaps remind those who were present at the Second Reading, that I referred to the great advantage which the prison governors will have in the future owing to the elasticity which will be given them by the new rules, which will not be made by Act, of Parliament, but which it will be possible to alter from time to time, and which will be accommodative to the age, sex, tradition, and other qualities and the different classes of persons who are under prison rule. The clause relating to the prison chaplain, to which the right reverend prleate referred, is also one of some importance. The fact that the chaplain who will be appointed will be able to hold other cures at the same time will, no doubt, be a great advantage in many ways, for it will induce a better class of men to take up the important duties of a prison chaplain. I hope, my Lords, it will not be necessary, after the remarks I made on the Second Reading, to go at greater length into the subjects touched upon by the right reverend prelate.

THE CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEES
took the Chair.
Bill passed through Committee, and reported to the House without Amendments.