The British government is considering a proposal to give iPads to prison inmates so that they can continue their education when confined to their cells, and also keep in touch with family members via FaceTime and Skype.
The Telegraph reports that the recommendation was made by an adviser to the Ministry of Justice, and is being considered by Justice Minister Michael Gove. A spokesman said that the government wanted to improve educational opportunities so that prisoners were less likely to re-offend following their release.
There does appear to be some support for the idea …
The plan is being considered by Dame Sally Coates, a former headteacher who is conducting a review of education in prisons for Mr Gove.
“If you haven’t got the skills to get a job, then you’re much more likely to reoffend,” she said.
Jerry Petherick, head of UK prisons for outsourcing giant G4S, said he believed that in-cell tablets would “become the norm”, but warned that strict controls would be needed to prevent further criminality.
Gizmodo suggested instead that if prisoners are there for punishment, they should instead be given 2010-spec Android tablets …
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The iShiv is born.
so law abiding citizens have to pay their hard earned cash to buy these things, and now criminals are getting them free?! well done UK..thats exactly what is needed! Education? what happened to good old books?!? FFS!!
While at home: ” Hey mom can you buy me an iPad. Sorry son, you can go get a free one in prison along with your own room, food, tv, gym, and education if you want.”
In my opinion this is like rewarding criminals for making poor decisions in life. They should not have the ability to connect with their families and get free education like everyone else in the world who has to pay their way to get through life. Not worth it.
NORWAY implemented similar strategies and that caused a huge reduction in crime rates. Google it.
What happened to long drop and short stop. \
Prison is supposed to be a punishment… they are supposed to have isolation and time to reflect on the bad deeds they have done…
Why not use the money to set up a factory and put them to work…i still think that they should be made to generate electricity — people are complaining about the bing windmills, and solar panels — so why not use the inmates… plenty of clean energy… that will distract them from thinking too much… and if they dont work, they get just a bed and gruel…if they work they get a proper meal and can earn luxury items like a desk, writing equipment, a TV (in a 14″ portable with no cable etc)…they can earn internet time and contact time — they shouldnt expect anything and should be made to earn.
Prison is a punishment, they should suffer while in there. Make them all use Windows or Android.
The last time I looked, prison was created as a punishment! They’ve already got Playstations, Pool Tables and Sky TV FFS!!
Wonderful! Finally some compassion for prisoners too long disconnected from families, communities, and world events. Will a prisoners iPad reveal the next great writer of our century?
Prison should also be a place for rehabilitation, as well as punishment. I don’t think anyone’s calling to spend $500 each for murderers to play Angry Birds all day. If an iPad is the right tool to get them educated and keep touch with someone/something on the outside world, that’s great.
I don’t know about the UK, but the US has some of the harshest prisons in the developed world. And the harshness doesn’t discourage anyone – in fact we have about 500% the imprisonment rate of everyone else. And the prisons themselves become training grounds for people to come out even more isolated, violent, and unequipped to live a normal life. It takes TENS of thousands of dollars to imprison someone each year. A few hundred for an iPad, if it helps them get better, is a great investment.
I’m sure nothing bad will come from THIS while behind bars and hacking it to get online. Sheesh…give me a break.
Child-like knee-jerkers are posting before researching or understanding the rationale of the initiative.
from wikipedia – “But according to a report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) about 68 percent of 405,000 prisoners released in 30 states in 2005 were arrested for a new crime within three years of their release from prison, and 77 percent were arrested within five years.”
The rate of recidivism in the US is high compared to other nations because of the lack of job skills training and education in prisons. There being punished by the nature of being locked up, now take the opportunity to give them skills to succeed upon release. An iPad (that’s likely to be shared and extremely locked down) represents about one hour of court and justice costs. That’s an impressive ROI.
Recidivism rate in Canada? 37.1%. Is it a co-incidence their prison system is called “Correctional Service of Canada”. That figure will likely drop now that the Conservatives are out.
Now let’s look at the UK – “This gives an overall proven re-offending rate of 26.5%; this rate has remained fairly stable, fluctuating between around 26% and 29% since 2003.” From the Ministry of Justice.
Who has the right approach?
what, then is actually keeping people of these jails? What is keeping them from saying “hey, all the entertainment I need, all the food I need, lets go to jail” LOL jk.
Wow, all these people that think that prison should just be about punishment. Once that criminal gets out the only thing they’ll know how to do is punish others. Although it would be better to get them $50 Amazon Fire tablets, even an iPad is worth the money to help rehabilitate them. I’d rather see an inmate reading an ebook or playing an appstore game than learning how to be a more efficient criminal from other inmates.