REPORTS OF COMMITTEES
| Published date | 01 October 1951 |
| Date | 01 October 1951 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1951.tb00223.x |
REPORTS
014’
COMMITTEES
FIRST
REPORT
OF
THE
COMMITTEE
ON
PUNISHMENTS
THE Committee which reported recently upon punishments in
prisons and Borstals has produced some interesting and valuable
suggestions and has also raised several controversial issues.
It
has recognised with considerable good sense, the existence
of
the
tobacco black market
),
run by the
‘
tobacco barons
’,
in the prison
system and its considerable influence upon the actions of prisoners,
who, as is stated in a letter from a prisoner printed as an Appendix,
are sometimes forced into committing prison offences in order to
avoid the retribution which follows failure to pay debts owing
to
the
*
barons
).
The Committee recommends that the earnings
of
the average prisoner should amount to
2s.
6d. per week; and
while it is doubtful
if
this would be high enough to defeat the
‘
barons
’
entirely, the price
of
cigarettes being what it is,
it
should
certainly be a help. The recently revised scale
of
earnings now
stands at
1s.
6d. per week on an average, which is certainly
inadequate; the matter is, however, dependent upon what the
Commissioners can obtain in the way of finance, rather than upon
policy decisions.
The Committee has also recommended that Restricted Diet
No.
2
(slightly more substantial than
No.
1)
should be revised
for
the
prison system, and abolished in Borstal altogether, and the Home
Secretary recently announced that the revision mentioned wag
taking place.2
No.
1
diet is, however, on the Committee’s
recommendation, to be retained in Borstals, although
Mr.
Ede
advised Governors and Boards
of
Visitors that
it
should be used
only in exceptional cases and as a last resort.
It
will be remembered
that dietary punishments were suspended in all Borstals in
1048
for
an experimental two-year period, and
it
should be remarked that
the Commissioners took no steps to provide any objective and
reliable evidence about the result
of
this experiment, with the result
that the Committee was presented with a mass of conflicting opinions
about the results
;
to which their recommendation has added another,
which is not particularly convincing, in the view
of
the writer,
since, while it is admittedly based upon a few cases of real difficulty,
the Committee’s recommendation is
of
a general and unqualified
nature. Indeed, the general attitude
of
the Committee towards
1
Report
of
a
Corninittee
to
Review Punishments in
Prisons,
Borstal
Institutions,
Approved
Schools
and Ilemand Homes,
Parts
I
and
11,
Prisons
and
Borstal
Institritions, H.M.S.O.,
Cmd.
6256.
2
See
Hansafd
for
July
26,
1051,
col.
2314,
for
the Home Secretary’s announce-
ment.
475
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