This from the Inside Time - National Newspaper for Prisons (April issue)
Digital TV
I write on the issue of digital television. At my prison we have changed over to digital in preparation for the analogue signal being switched off. The channels we are now able to receive being: BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, ITV2, Channel 4, Channel 5, Film Four, The Music Factory Channel, Sky Sports News Channel. Those of us who purchased Freeview boxes found they could no longer pick up any channels ... basically they are dead!
On approaching staff and the engineer who converted the televisions to digital, they stated the prison service had instructed them (the TV engineering company) to install only 4 channels and it was to be the same four channels throughout the prison system.
Is the above statement from the engineering company true? If so, why are they only making four channels available and who chose said channels? Will prisons be getting the full package in due course and if not, why?
Name & address supplied
* The Prison Service writes: Your correspondent raises oncerns about the recent change over to digital television in preparation for the analogue signal being switched off. He asks why there are only four channels available, who chose these channels and the possibility of getting the full package in the future.
The Home Office is currently piloting a system for the provision of digital television to the prison estate. At present the decision is to provide prisoners with access to nine channels. This is more than the five channels to which they currently have access, but is less than the full range of channels available on Freeview.
The number of channels available at present may change in the future (either up or down). The Prison Service is not under any obligation to provide prisoners with access to the full range of digital channels available to the general public. Television in cell is a privilege and not a right. The nine channels that are available in the pilot sites were chosen centrally, but these can be changed locally if the Governor so wishes.
Carol Selema - Briefing and Casework Unit
The Prison Service Briefing and Casework Unit are wrong about this: "Television in cell is a privilege and not a right". Because the case of Herzegfalvy v Austria established that in-cell television is a human right and even extends to those undergoing punishment within the Segregation Units.
A mixture of law, politics, autobiography and humour. Once described as "The Devilish Advocate" (Guardian), I do have the ability to provoke a response. Sometimes it comes from someone who uses a thought process, and sometimes from jerks usually associated with the knee.
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