THE EARL OF HARROWBYasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will consider carefully the adoption, at suitable institutes where juvenile offenders are detained, of the method used by the Roman Catholic Centre for Juvenile Offenders at Lincolndale in the United States, whereby inmates are given their own dog to look after, in view of the fact that experience there appears to have shown that after release they are found to remain law-abiding.
§ LORD STONHAMThe care of animals is a recognised and valued part of the training given in approved schools, detention centres and borstals, and at most approved schools for the younger boys and girls pets are kept and are looked after by the children in their spare time. The care of personal pets presents problems of housing, feeding, supervision and good order and discipline, and it would not be practicable to give every one of some 14,000 inmates a dog to look after.
House adjourned at one minute past eight o'clock.