Prisoners are to be given access to e-mail to encourage them to keep in contact with families and friends. They will also be able to use the internet to assist their education and improve their chances of finding work.

The proposals are part of the Government’s strategy to reduce reoffending through providing prisoners with skills training and employment. But the move is causing alarm in the Home Office, despite Baroness Scotland of Asthal, QC, the Prisons Minister, personally signing a document in which the proposal appears.

Prisoners in London jails will be the first to be able to take advantage of the proposal. The National Offender Management Service, the joint prison and probation service, intends to install a secure managed network of computers with access to approved websites.

If the pilot project is a success and helps criminals to gain skills and work, the service will consider introducing it to all jails in England and Wales. Access to e-mail is planned as part of the project.

“The National Offender Management Service plans to trial a system to provide e-mail to offenders in Wandsworth prison,” according to plans outlined in Reducing Reoffending through Skills and Employment: Next Steps. In spite of the proposal being outlined in the government document, signed by Baroness Scotland, the Home Office said that the plan had not been signed off yet by ministers.

A Home Office spokesman said: “The plans to trial a system to provide e-mail to offenders in one prison will not go ahead until ministers are persuaded that mechanisms to prevent potential abuses are in place.

“The service is looking at how to provide a secure IT infrastructure to facilitate internet-delivered learning courses in seven London prisons. These proposals will not give prisoners access to the internet.”

The proposal to allow prisoners access to e-mail is intended to help them to maintain links with their families. Home Office officials say that contact with family and friends is one of a number of factors that helps to reduce reoffending. Latest figures show that 67 per cent of all prisoners are reconvicted of another offence within two years of their release.

The Home Office said that prisoners would be able to e-mail only approved addresses. A similar system already operates with telephones, under which prisoners can ring only security-vetted numbers.

Officials said that every e-mail would have to be vetted. “They will be text-only and there will be no images of any kind allowed,” a Home Office source said. The prisoners would have access only to internet sites approved by the service’s education department.

The proposal was condemned by the Prison Officers’ Association. Colin Moses, its chairman, said: “While we welcome any advances in offender management, it must be remembered that many of those in our charge have committed IT offences.

“How long will it be before a breakdown in the IT puts the public at risk? We believe this is an ill-thought-out proposal.”

But Ann Creighton, director of the Prisoners’ Education Trust, said: “If prisoners are to return to the community equipped with the skills and qualifications to lead a more positive life, access to modern technology is essential.

“There are of course security considerations which are vital, but these concerns have been overcome in other countries.”

Although computers are used for educational purposes in many prisons, only seven now offer internet access. Prisons usually ban online connections on security grounds.

The all-party parliamentary group for further education and lifelong learning argues that facilities for distance learning and e-learning should be enhanced in every prison.

Doing bird

Prisoners may have a stereo system as a privilege, and may have a birdcage in jails where birds are allowed

Source: Prisoners’ Handbook

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