give prisoners access to social media -l cut re-offending ... · use social media to arrange drug...

Opinion

Give prisoners access to social media – itwill cut re-offending rates

A prisoner uses a phone in the US. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

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by EJ Ward

2 years Wednesday August 24th 2016

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Imagine a world where the only way you can contact your loved ones is via a letter. It will

only be sent second class. They might not receive it for a week. The reply comes via the

same means, if it comes at all. Your phone calls cost 65p a minute, but you can only use

the phone between 5pm and 6pm. These are just some of the problems prisoners have

with contacting the outside world.

Meanwhile, a survey by the Ministry of Justice from 2003 stated that family contact

reduces re-o�ending, and that prisoners being able to communicate with their children

improves the lives of all concerned. So it’s no wonder that a prison inspector has called for

inmates to be given access to social media and Skype.

Prisoners are cut off

In the age of Facebook, Twitter and Skype, prisoners still have no access to the internet,

and no way of speaking to or seeing their loved ones that doesn’t involve booking a visit

twice a month. Longer term prisoners can struggle with modern technology after being

absent from it for several years. If you’d never used a touchscreen, would you know what

to do?

Use or misuse?

Yes, there are concerns that prisoners will abuse access to social media. Her Majesty’s

Inspector of Prisons has stated that phones are prevalent in prisons and some prisoners

use social media to arrange drug deals, or as was the case at HMP Rochester, in order to

import �rearms.

These cases, whilst they generate a lot of publicity, are thankfully isolated, and with the

proper security precautions in place it could bene�t thousands of children who are

separated from their parents and help prisoners transition from being in custody to their

release.

We should trust prisoners that have shown they can be trusted, in order to help them

maintain vital family ties, and reduce re-o�ending rates. This would bene�t society as a

whole.

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give prisoners access to social media -l cut re-offending ... · use social media to arrange drug...

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