§ Mr. BOTTOMLEYasked the Home Secretary (1) whether, in view of the revelations made at the recent inquest on Ellen Sullivan, who died in Holloway Gaol while on remand charged with a trivial offence, he will cause an inquiry to be made into the whole system of remand imprisonment and particularly into the kind of accommodation for persons who have been convicted of no offence and who may be taken ill while awaiting trial; and (2) whether his attention has been called to the recent death in childbirth of Ellen Sullivan, aged seventeen and a half, in the remand infirmary of Holloway Prison; whether he is aware that the evidence at the inquest revealed the fact that there is an entire lack of proper accommodation and attention for sick persons on remand, and that Ellen Sullivan gave birth to her child alone and in the middle of the night in an ordinary cell; and whether he will call for a report from the prison doctor as to his reasons for not ordering Ellen Sullivan's release on the ground that she was an expectant mother?
§ Mr. SHORTTI have consulted Dr. Waldo, the coroner for the City of1428W London, who conducted the inquest in this case, and he informs me that the investigation was a full and careful one, and that the evidence clearly showed that death was due, in the case of the mother as well as that of her child, to purely natural causes; that the placing and detention of the mother in prison in no way affected her health injuriously; that the mother had every care and attention; and that both the jury and he were quite satisfied with the treatment generally. He reports that the evidence pointed to the deceased having been in good health on admission to Holloway Prison. Shortly after her admission she was seized with persistent attacks of vomiting for which she received appropriate treatment and dieting. She was about six and a-half months pregnant, but there was no indication whatever of a likelihood of premature childbirth or miscarriage occurring. The remand infirmary in which she was located consists of two wards containing ten beds each and a number of grated cells. Sullivan was placed in one of the latter on account of her pregnant condition and to avoid her having to associate with older women. The coroner and jury inspected this cell, and the coroner reports that it was clean and warmed by hot-air pipes, ventilation being provided by a window which opened. The door and gate of the cell remained open day and night during the illness of the deceased. She was visited in this cell every ten minutes by a hospital wardress night and day, and the wardress had only left the cell a few minutes before the miscarriage occurred. On discovering the fact she at once summoned the certified prison midwife and the medical officer who were close at hand and immediately attended the mother and child.
Dr. Spilsbury, the expert pathologist who made the post mortem examination, found that the deceased had been suffering from the disease known as diabetes mellitus, and, in his opinion, death was due to this disease accelerated by the miscarriage. The findings of the coroner's jury and Dr. Waldo's report from which I have quoted in my opinion completely dispose of the allegations that have been made against the prison administration in connection with this case. There appears to be no occasion for the further inquiry which the hon. Member suggests. I should be very glad if any hon. Member who desires to do so would visit Holloway 1429W Prison and personally inspect the remand hospital in which the confinement took place.