§ Mr. Shortasked the Home Secretary whether he will give the date of erection of every prison now occupied?
§ Sir S. HoareOf the establishments now controlled by the Prison Commissioners, five—namely Dartmoor, Parkhurst, Pentonville, Portland and the first Borstal establishment at the village of Borstal near Rochester, were originally constructed or adapted as convict prisons before the local prisons were transferred from the justices to the Prison Commissioners by the Prison Act of 1877. After 1877 the Prison Commissioners built or rebuilt the prisons at Portsmouth in 1878, Dorchester in 1879, Shrewsbury in 1886, Bristol in 1883, Wormwood Scrubs between 1874 and 1891, Norwich and Nottingham in 1892, Camp Hill as a Preventive Detention prison in the years 1908 to 1912, Lowdham Grange as a Borstal Institution from the year 1930 onwards and the North Sea Camp as a Borstal Institution from the year 1934 onwards. They also acquired in 1910 an institution at Feltham which they adapted as a Borstal Institution.
The remaining prisons were originally constructed by the local justices at varying dates, mostly about the middle of the last century; but the original dates of construction are no guide to the present character of the buildings, since this depends on the extent of the alterations that have been made in modern times. For instance Dartmoor was an establishment 608W for prisoners of war as long ago as 1804 but little is left of the original building and the older buildings are used only as store-places. Again, the Borstal establishments at Rochester and Portland are very different from the old convict establishments which they replaced, while at Aylesbury the principal buildings now used were built as a State Inebriate Reformatory in 1902.