PRISON EARNINGS
Sta,—In your issue of June 18th it was stated that persons serving prison sentences are paid 6d. per day. This statement was, of course, fantasti- cally incorrect, and was only partially corrected by the subsequent letters from the Secretary of the Howard League. I was released from Park- hurst Prison the other day after a residence of over two years, so perhaps I may be presumed to know something about the matter. For the informa- tion of your readers, the maximum possible wage of a prisoner serving a five years' sentence is only Is. 41d. per week, while the minimum is in the neighbourhood of 6d. In each case a penny is deducted and placed in what is euphemistically called a "common" fund.
Since the subject of prison reform is now so much in the news, surely it is not too much to expect that persons who are actively engaged in snaking the new laws should try to ascertain the facts, before making state- ments in Parliament which are entirely erroneous. As an ex-lag, I would suggest that M.P.s and other interested persons might well seek informa- tion from some of the prisoners themselves. Facts emanating from the
Prison Commission are apt to be tinted with an altogether too rosy com- plexion, and whatever details that forbidding collection of officials choose to reveal are quite distorted by the omission of the restrictions which Invariably accompany their acts of "generosity." It is rare indeed for an'y privilege to be granted to prisoners without some strings attached. I do _ not believe that prisoners should be pampered, but at least the public should not be bamboozled with stories of conditions that every prisoner knows to be non-existent. Not all prisoners are fools ; some of them are
not even scoundrels.—! am, Sir, yours, &c., R. SHAW. 54 Hunter Street, London, W.C.
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