Pampered prisoners supplied with £221,726 of PlayStations

[wraggster]

Prisoners across the country are being supplied with computer games consoles costing thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money.

The Prison Service has spent £221,726 on PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo systems and software to keep jailed criminals entertained. Ministers have previously admitted spending only £10,000 on the machines.

An audit carried out last month on Justice Secretary Jack Straw’s orders turned up 12,948 game consoles in prisons and young-offender institutions in England and Wales, showing how widespread their use is among the 83,600 prison population.

While most of them were bought by inmates themselves, a total of 1,715, costing between £100 and £300 each, was provided by the Prison Service.

The Ministry of Justice recently announced restrictions on the use of the games but critics said this was because the extent of their use was going to be made public.

Officials at the department admitted that there was nothing to stop violent 18-rated games being played on taxpayer-funded machines and conceded that prison authorities may have purchased violent titles for some inmates.

Tory MP Nigel Evans, to whom Mr Straw disclosed the figures in a letter, said: ‘Does being sent down for five years of hard PlayStation playing serve as rehabilitation or punishment?

‘This is rewarding criminal behaviour with equipment which many victims of crime could only dream of affording for their children. People will be outraged by this revelation.’

Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Herbert said: ‘While Ministers protest that there is no money for prison places or rehabilitation schemes, they waste taxpayers’ funds on luxuries which prisoners shouldn’t have.

‘Offenders should be learning and preparing for the world of work, not idly playing Grand Theft Auto and preparing to return to crime.’

It was disclosed recently that thousands of inmates have access to Sky TV and computers, and last week it was revealed that more money is spent on food for prisoners in police cells than for NHS patients.

Prisoners are allowed to play 18-rated games such as Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt, which are notorious for their extreme violence.

However, from October, 18-rated titles will be banned in prisons altogether and the use of consoles will be restricted to only the best behaved prisoners or those on suicide watch.

In his letter to Mr Evans, Mr Straw claimed he had not known of the arrangement until recently. He wrote: ‘I was unhappy when I first heard [in April] that public money was being spent on games consoles, and ordered a review of this policy.

‘I have now decided that, with immediate effect, no public money will be spent on games consoles.’

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said decisions about purchasing consoles for inmates had been made on ‘a prison-by-prison basis’.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...yStations.html

[masterchief929]

take the playstations away andgive the prisoners a job that pays ten cents an hour fixing the road.

[Xiofire]

Isnt prison meant to be about teaching someone a lesson, making it hell so that they do not commit a crime again? Not a holiday camp with prepaid luxuries.

-Xiofire

[osgeld]

heh give them a psp, what a wonderful idea

that way they can smash them on a hard surface (and everything is a hard surface in there) now you have all kinds of goodies

glass, pcb's and pretty tough plasic

just use some of those hardened microchips as grinding stones and you have shanks for everyone

stupid ass people, just hand them some metal, its much cheaper

[alanparker05]

I don't agree with pampering prisoners too much but you have to treat them with some respect and not like caged animals so if they are used as a reward for good behaviour this can aid in their rehabilitation

[myuusmeow]

What is wrong with this world? That's almost half a million dollars going to make the murderers, rapists, burgalars, etc happy?! Shouldn't that be spent on education, health care, pot holes? Heck, anything but the s$#@! of the earth would be good.

What idiot's idea was it to give them only to good behavior (not killing anyone) and suicidal people?! Next news item: Prisoners in UK Suicidal Rates up 90%!

[pibs]

while we are at it why not give the insane people kitchen ware to learn the proper way to cut meats.

[osgeld]

I don't agree with pampering prisoners too much but you have to treat them with some respect and not like caged animals so if they are used as a reward for good behaviour this can aid in their rehabilitation

yea im sure jimmy 3 fingers was respecting someone real good when he f*ked their grandmother

they are caged animals, have you not seen the inside of a prison even on tv?

theres x amount of insane idiots doing whatever to cause even more trouble behind their razor wire fences and CAGES, with a smidgen of people who truley feel bad for what they did, and those people do get rewards, instead of 23 hours of lockdown in THEIR CAGE, they get to do work, goto schools talking about their mistakes and gain privilages

not just heres a psp for everyone

[Eviltaco64]

You killed two neighborhood families?

Here's some Pizza and a Playstation 3!
Relax and a corrupt judge will have you out of here in no time!

[juiceface]

yeah but also remember that 2/3rds of all prison populations are locked up for some kind of drug offense in the USA. (I am not sure about britain) but the drug laws here need to be severely reformed.

It is a huge waste of taxpayer money to be sending people to prison for marijuana and other drugs. The government should not be able to tell people what to put in their bodies. I agree a murderers or rapists shouldn't get these systems, but the average person who is 'rehabilitating' to be a better person should be afforded these machines if they want to pay for them with their own money, not taxpayers however.