HC Deb 25 November 1919 vol 121 cc1653-4W
Sir J. AGG-GARDNER

asked the Home Secretary if, in view of the successful results recently obtained by more lenient discipline at the Camp Hill preventive detention prison, he will consider the suggestion of allowing long-sentence men in con- vict prisons extended means of association after working hours, of permission to purchase tobacco with their monthly allowance, and of an increase of that allowance in consequence of the extra cost of all articles of consumption?

Mr. SHORTT

I have considered this matter, which has a good deal to recommend it, and have consulted the Prison Commissioners, but I find that in view of the construction of convict prisons and the impossibility of separating a small group of convicts from the rest it is impracticable to adopt it without serious interference with the necessary discipline of the prison. The case of the men under preventive detention who have served their sentences of penal servitude and are segregated in a special prison is entirely different.