§ Mr. Fenner Brockwayasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners have died at Parkhurst prison during the last 10 years; what has been the average age at death; what has been the average prison population during this period; and how the death rate compares with that in other prisons and with that of the general population.
§ Major Lloyd-GeorgeForty-two prisoners died at Parkhurst prison during the years 1945-54. Excluding one suicide, the average age at death was 54£5 years. The daily average population of the prison during these years was 631. The death rate from natural causes was 6£5 per thousand at Parkhurst and 2£3 per thousand in all prisons in England and Wales. The foregoing figures include deaths in outside hospitals of prisoners temporarily released for medical treatment. I am informed by the Registrar-General that the average death rate per thousand of the population of England and Wales aged 20 years and over during these years was 15£3 (this rate is based, for the years 1945 to 1949, on the rate for civilians only, but for the years 1950-54 on all deaths registered in England and Wales). It is to be expected that the death rate at Parkhurst would be higher than in prisons as a whole because the prison population at Parkhurst has included a number of prisoners sent there specifically on account of their ill-health