The value of this forum.

[sooty]

British prisons and umpteen other institutions are stuffed full with people who are alleged to have committed crimes of one sort or another. Others are alleged to be mentally ill.

When stuck inside a small cell within the walls of a prison, a prisoner has no access to this forum. He or she will simply not know that there may be grounds of appeal against conviction and/or sentence. Instead, the prisoners have to rely upon firms of solicitors to pursue some sort of action on their behalf. Unfortunately, firms of solicitors are in a position to pick and choose who they work for. They do not like hard work and this will manifest as complicated cases being avoided particularly where the 1989 Human Rights Act is concerned.

Most of the people who are in British Jails are poverty-stricken to the extent that they can ill-afford the cost of a postage stamp. Instead, they choose to spend whatever cash they get on tobacco or a lighter.

The Internet is a method of educating people in all walks of life but prisoners have no such luxury until they are released. The cost of housing and feeding so many ill and poorly educated people could be reduced significantly if the Internet were to be made available to those folk who are quite possibly the victims of alleged experts and corrupt police officers.

[Casehardened]

Thank you for your compliments regarding this forum and I'm sure that you are right in that access to support forums in general would be beneficial to those in prison.

However there is a big but regarding unlimited internet access for prisoners; I understand that (illicit) possession of a mobile is highly prized amongst prisoners as a means of networking with those still outside and inevitably the majority of internet use would also end up being non-altruistic!

The Inside Times http://www.insidetime.org/ is a good way to keep up with issues though I suspect many who would really benefit from the information therein will not bother to read it.

[sooty]

Thank you for your compliments regarding this forum and I'm sure that you are right in that access to support forums in general would be beneficial to those in prison.

However there is a big but regarding unlimited internet access for prisoners; I understand that (illicit) possession of a mobile is highly prized amongst prisoners as a means of networking with those still outside and inevitably the majority of internet use would also end up being non-altruistic!

The Inside Times http://www.insidetime.org/ is a good way to keep up with issues though I suspect many who would really benefit from the information therein will not bother to read it.

Reading the content of all the threads on this forum is not something that I need to do. However, I have no doubt that it contains little bits and pieces of valuable information posted by people in the know or with personal experiences of injustice of one sort or another.

The Internet has become a way of life for many millions of people but prisoners are denied access to a cheap method of education and gaining information. This appears not to be in the spirit of the 1989 Human Rights Act per se.

If each cell within the walls of all UK prisons were to be fixed up with computers and Internet access then the inmates would be able to download into their brains other methods of earning a living rather than the one that had put them behind bars.

[RFLH]

its never going to happen!

[sooty]

its never going to happen!

Wrong Mr Ancient Super Moderator!

It will happen someday soon because there are so many people on the outside who can make money out of it. They can get corporate sponsorship and government grants for a host of initiatives.

Of course, the inmates would have to pay for the new service just the same as they pay for their in-cell televisions. Nothing comes for free and I am sure that Sir Richard Branson would be very happy to supply the cables and computers.

[RFLH]

erm - I'm not a man!

[sooty]

erm - I'm not a man!

Well. The NHS can fix that!

[lawlessone2009]

Well. The NHS can fix that!

I completely missed this.

The NHS, by the looks of it, is 'For Sale' to the very people you may potentially want to provide free internet to convicted criminals. I'd much rather invest my money in the NHS than free internet for cons.

Sometimes it takes decades for those who are innocent to finally be found innocent. I fail to see how the internet would speed up the process and tend to be persuaded towards the potential providing of internet access in prisons as creating far more issues than it could ever resolve.

I do not for one minute disagree with the position that there are people in prison who are innocent. I generally believe that the majority of prisoners, whether guilty or not, have been the victims of over prosecution. A year in prison would most likely seem like a decade in normal life and a lifetime for those who are innocent. Sometimes life deals a nasty hand but the internet is not going to change that.

[Rights Fighter]

We have Email A Prisoner whereby families and supporters can send emails to inmates. These are printed out (in the mail room I believe) and subject to the same censorship as letters and the inmate then responds (or doesn't!) by letter. A very few prisons now have the facility for inmates to reply to emails by email, rather than writing letters but that is heavily monitored.

I cannot foresee inmates being allowed access to the internet - not unless it was heavily monitored and only certain proscribed sites were accessible. Can you imagine the security problems that would evolve if they had carte blanche access? Plus of course you would get sex offenders accessing porn and illegal porn. Nope I can't see it happening. It would cost far to much to monitor. The prison service is already strapped for cash and understaffed and under resourced.