[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I have read with
profound interest the series of articles written by Mr. Athill. Any ex-prisoner knows that in spite of Prison Commissioners being personally humane, the system itself is so hide-bound by traditions of secrecy and hyprocrisy that it is quite impossible for any like Mr. Athill to furnish any really correct information.
As an instance, one of the gravest scandals of prison adminis- tration is the cynical and dishonest manner of answering petitions submitted by prisoners. In law the Home Secretary, aided by the Prison Commissioners, as guardians and trustees of a prisoner while he is in prison, are under an obligation to investigate any petition submitted to them by a prisoner. How shamefully this moral and legal obligation is shirked only prisoners, and particularly those in prison who are able to establish their complete innocence, can testify. The public imagines that the Adolf Beck scandal put an end to this evil. It can be shown that such is far from the case, and today a prisoner whom the Home Office know full well is innocent will be kept in prison, something which will fill the ordinary decent man with extreme horror. To all petitions it is usual to send a stereotyped reply reading : " The Secretary of State, after giving careful consideration to your petition, cannot see his way to grant your request."
If the forthcoming Prisons Bill is to prove of practical value, a series of public meetings should be organised immediately at which ex-prisoners could tell the ,public the whole truth about a system which has become as outworn and as evil as the old Poor Law system now discarded.
Will readers of The Spectator interested in the proposal set out in the above . paragraph kindly communicate with me ?- I am, yours very faithfully, H. W. Wicits. 3 Manor Court, Manor Mount, Forest Hill, S.E. 23.
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