This entry was posted on Thursday, April 5th, 2007 at 1:15 pm and is filed under Internet News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Prisoners are to be given access to email for the first time in a bid to cut reoffending and connect them better with friends and family . The Home Office is giving up a plans for a pilot scheme in a single jail to give inmates internet use , despite obvious fears that it could be a security risk . The project at Wandsorth Prison in South London would go only if there were systems in place to prevent “potential abuses” . The web surfing , however , will be denied . The Home Officials says : ” The plans to trial a system to provide email to offenders in one prison will not go ahead untill ministers are pursuaded that mechanisms to prevent potential abuses are in place . The National Offender Management Service is also looking at how to provide a secure IT infrastructure to facilitate internet-delivered learning courses in seven London prisons . “ The education depatment of the prison has assigned a specific training course for the prisoners . “ The internet and email has so far not been given to prisoners because of fears that it could be used to plan escape bids , or that certain inmates , such as sex offenders , could use it to view inappropriate material .”