§ Mr. GILBERTasked the Home Secretary why Irish prisoners are brought to London and interned in prisons in the Metropolitan Police area; whether in the case of a recent prisoner so detained it meant the assembling of large crowds of people, sometimes disorderly, in the immediate vicinity of the prison, and the maintaining of large forces of police to preserve order; and whether in the future his Department will consider that such prisoners should not be detained in crowded populated districts of the Metropolis?
§ Mr. SHORTTThe disturbed state of Ireland has made it necessary to bring certain Irish prisoners to this country. They are not interned, but imprisoned for criminal offences. I am aware that in one special case large crowds assembled outside Brixton Prison, but when they became disorderly they were broken up by the police and not allowed to collect again. The Irish prisoners are distributed to prisons in different parts of the country, but it is necessary to retain some of them in London.