Prisoner blog creating a stir

A serving prisoner has started his own blog and this appears to be creating quite a stir with the authorities doing their best to stop him. I am not going to comment on the content and what he is saying. The point is that prisoners have a right to be able to contact the outside world and that includes writing books, articles, making comment in the blogosphere, talking to families or whatever. They remain citizens and the punishment is their geographical removal and containment, not their ability to participate. Indeed, it is essential that we hear what is going on in prisons, from both staff and prisoners. The Prison Service is experimenting with giving prisoners access to the internet but is taking a very risk-averse attitude. The experiments in a handful of prisons involve supervised access with prison staff overseeing everything being done, controlling all the links that could possible be used and tracking the sites visited. I do appreciate that it would be dreadful if prisoners could access pornographic or violent sites, but that could be controlled and supervised relatively easily. Blogs should be encouraged.

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September 15, 2009  Tags:   Posted in: Inside prisons, Prisons

One Response

  1. Jailhouselawyer - September 19, 2009

    The MoJ sought legal advice following my post in Comment is Free, and as a result is now reviewing its policy in relation to prisoner bloggers. In other words, the MoJ has backed down.

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