TV could be a calming influence on inmates

Criticism of Jail TV

The Home Office has asked the Prison Service to investigate the issue to try to defuse tensions in Britain's overcrowded jails. Prison Service officials said no decisions had been made and said it was weighing up the "pros and cons" of the scheme.

But the Conservatives immediately seized on the review saying it showed that Labour was not tough on crime. Home affairs spokesman, James Clappison, said: "We think prison conditions should be decent and austere and prisons should be a punishment".

"We think televisions in cells are not consistent with that. We think it's soft on criminals," he said.

The Former Home Secretary, Michael Howard, rejected the plan suggested by General Sir John Learmont in his inquiry following the 1995 Parkhurst Prison breakout. In the report, he said: "Televisions in cells could provide a calming influence and a powerful incentive to good conduct. It could also be used for educational and communication purposes".

A prison group warned that introducing televisions into cells at 135 prisons in England and Wales would prove a hard public relations task for the Government. Deputy director of the Prison Reform Trust, Nick Flynn, said: "It's a delicate matter and it shouldn't be used for prisoners to sit around to watch football. But it could be a useful tool for the Prison Service to give information to prisoners."

Winchester Prison in Hampshire and Garth Prison in Lancashire both have televisions in cells and the Prison Service said they were used on a "fairly limited basis" elsewhere. Staff at Garth Prison welcomed the review and said it would back the widespread introduction of televisions. Deputy governor, Eddie Healy, said the scheme had been in place for almost four years and said that staff were convinced the project had worked.

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