Cell phones

FlexibleFriend thank you

Gabriella, until you've studied the guys case indepth then you can't make judgement.

GabriellaG54
Try telling that beyond reasonable doubt to a friend of mine who was sentenced to life ( for murder).
He never did it but spent 2 years in a Dutch prison.
He received £50,000 in compensation. He used that money to set up a very good business.

Police have held documents etc from his defense for 33 years, even after having been sent 3 court orders to release them to his present legal team and now forensics have joined in by withholding vital documents.
Why do you think this is so ? Something to hide ??
Could the public refuse a court made against them ?

Buy one then

Prisoners should be able to contact family and other authorised members of the public before they are released.

www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/thousands-of-uk-prisoners-to-get-landline-phones-in-10m-scheme-to-cut-reoffending-a4026256.html

I think that prisoners should receive nothing more than their basic needs- decent food, a comfortable bed, clean bathroom facilities, etc, but no additional benefits. There are some hard-working, law-abiding people who cannot afford anything more. Where is the justice?

Some people believe contact with friends and family is a basic need.
Plus anything that makes a prison officers job easier is to be welcomed.

No. No. No

Prison isn't much of a hardship these days, is it? I expect that drug dealers can still make a fortune behind bars. If we treat criminals like savages I expect that's bad too but this is going too far. Prison should be a punishment with loss of rights and privileges or what's the point?

But it IS a punishment.

I agree that for hardened criminals, it will just be a term to get through, buy for the majority of people (in my limited experience), it IS a punishment.
Unless you have been there, you honestly have no idea. I accept that there are truly evil, bad people out there, but the majority i met had made a mistake, a bad one - maybe not the first one, agreed, but they were not bad. What we had done was bad, but we, as people, were not bad.
We were broken.
Some of us got fixed, some did not, but none of us deserved to be tteat any worse than we were.

Sorry, i know this is a strange first post, but i have lurked on gransnet for a long time ?

Sorry for typos, fat thumbs!

A friends daughter had her life made a misery by someone she got chatting to online, who turned out to be an inmate at a prison.
There are ways and means me having access to mobiles inside.

I think the article needs to be read before a less unemotive response can be given. Prisoners queuing up for long periods to use phones are much more likely to get caught up in violence which then puts both prisoners and guards at risk. I, for one, would love to see prisoners not returning to prison after release and it has been shown that those who can maintain family contact have less chance of reoffending which has to be good for the whole of society. Children who have parents inside suffer hugely but this scheme may enable the parent to keep closer ties. From my understanding, the prisoner still has to pay for their own calls and can only dial certain allowed numbers. Many of us believe that prisoners have it too easy but, from what I have read, it sounds like hell on earth being incarcerated in overcrowded, violent prisons and many inmates should be in mental hospitals not prisons if only there were sufficient beds for them.

‘Prison isn’t much of a hardship these days’ Have you been in one recently? Whilst there are people who are habitual criminals there are also many who have made a mistake, it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be punished but they are still human beings and to treat them as any less dimishes our humanity.
Nearly all of us, our children and our grandchildren are one step away from prison.

I’ve seen middle aged respectable people who have made a driving mistake, forgotten to put the right glasses on and then mistook the accelerator for the brake, mistakes which ended in tragedy and a prison sentence, albeit a short one. Young men who drank too much one night, ended up in a fight, one punch later-a conviction for manslaughter.
I do not believe they don’t deserve a prison sentence but the ignorance and vitriol shown by some posters on this thread is shameful.

I'm so angry, and disappointed,at some of the views e pressed here.

My DH worked in a London prison for a while. It was not luxurious and life was pretty grim in there.
If you treat people like animals they behave like animals.
Prison should be an opportunity to turn people's lives around (where possible, not a given) in addition to restricting them and/or protecting the public.

No it’s not. It’s loising their liberty. That’s the punishment! You don’t go to prison to be punished even more !

123CoCo if these poor dears hadn't committed the crime they would not loose touch with their children. It is a punishment. It is the left wing do gooder's like yourself who approve this. How about the homeless and older people who cannot afford a phone. It is rewarding them for wrong doing but that's OK then.

It’s not a reward for wrongdoing it’s an attempt to treat people humanely and avoid recidivism as much as possible. It’s also to Make prisons a more civilising environment and lowers violence between inmates and towards staff. We should think about the welfare of the staff and not try to keep
prisons a violent and frightening place. I would think few people cannot afford a basic phone in this country if they want one.

Marieeliz I’m anything but a ‘left-wing do-gooder’, although I don’t regard it as the nasty insult you obviously intended it to be, I merely prefer to educate myself about current affairs rather than display ignorance.

EllanVannin
Unbelievable.
33 years and we've never heard of it?
33 years and it's never made headlines about his/her innocence and withholding of information by prosecution?
Whatever...if the person was handed a tariff of that length, it must have been a whole of life sentence and the crime must have been horrendous.
His/her legal team can't be any use because no police force or prosecution team would be allowed to withhold evidence for that amount of time without it getting leaked to the press. You cannot get a new hearing unless you present new and compelling evidence which that person evidently does not have. It's the CPS who decide whether or not to prosecute or allow an appeal and they who order that police disclose any evidence which would exonerate a prisoner.

EllaKeat
Did you ever meet 'Chalky' in the gym? PE instructor? Mate of mine.

Some people have very strange views, do you not see that by depriving the prisoner of contact with their children you are also depriving the children. Is it not bad enough they will no doubt struggle financially but you want them to suffer emotionally too. think you'd also find most families would find the money to pay for the phone for the prisoner as they already finance most of their needs. Families go without themselves to make the prisoners lives that bit better.

Well when I saw this and subsequently heard the news, I was (am incandescent). My mother started work at 14 during the war, she stopped work at 76 when she had open heart surgery. She is now in a nursing home with dementia. She has nothing left. Nothing, Nada, Nil, I pay for her mobile phone as the cost of having a line put in her room is extortionate . She can't make calls, but I can phone her. She paid everything to the home for her nursing care, she is left with perhaps £20 per week out of her state pension (there is no other money) for her hair do every week, the chiropodist and to have her nails filed. I pay for all her outings, activities, sweeties, etc., How can this government or any ruling body deem this to be a fair society, It sucks and I am still angry.

yes, I understand what you are saying, but perhaps the criminals should think of their families as well as their victims.