From the article:

"Prisoners should count themselves lucky that they even have televisions..."

I think that says it all, really. Whiny little biatches.

Not having gone to prison I can't be sure but don't prisoners actually have to work for their money? They get some stupidly low wage of something like 30p an hour and also use this money to buy stuff like cigarettes and stuff.

This isn't exactly coming out of the taxpayers pockets as lots of businesses benefit from cheap prison labour

They're in prison as a punishment, they don't deserve "rewards" for good behaviour, they should have thought of that before committing the crime. Presumably someone'll start bleating on about violating their human rights next! They refused to live be the laws laid down by society and until they've served their penance for the crime then they have no human rights.

Poor ickle prisoners not getting their television? Infantile rubbish! They're in *prison* for crap's sake!

And McDonalds and Pizza Hut and all sorts of greasy foods. But no weights, basketball courts or handball courts.

Let them come out of prison as fat blobs with high cholesterol. That's a good way to protect the public.

Okay, I'm not from the UK, but I suspect many would agree with me.

"And McDonalds and Pizza Hut and all sorts of greasy foods. But no weights, basketball courts or handball courts.

Let them come out of prison as fat blobs with high cholesterol. That's a good way to protect the public.

Okay, I'm not from the UK, but I suspect many would agree with me."

Nice idea... but in reality, we'll not only have to carry them as jobless Chavs but we would also have to carry them on the NHS, of which obesity is the biggest problem (no pun intended), followed by alcohol and smoking related illnesses coming in third.

Shame we don't see add campiagns on how to quite eating and promotion of eating patches.

Given that The Reg quotes a fairly extreme right-wing set of morons ("The Taxpayers Alliance") this is hardly a credible article. Given that the comments of readers display no idea of rehabilitation towards prisoners then it follows you can hardly expect them to be model citizens when they come out. Given that prisons are much easier to manage and trouble is reduced when prisoner morale is high you actually save money - you can hardly complain when you treat these people like animals and there's a riot which costs thousands to repair all the damage.

The problem is, we're meant to have a justice system. We're not meant to have system of punitive revenge that simply does not work. Given that attitudes people have shown to prison and prisoners are practically pre-Victorian they should not be surprised that prison is just a revolving door of the same old faces where prison simply becomes an "occupational hazard."

We could give them a big box with a screen at the front they can climb in, a nice dress up box with make up and let them make their own TV. Possibly filming it as another reality tv show "Con-Air(ed)".

The ideas are endless and maybe numbers could be culled with re-inactments of famous executions.. Although the love scenes wouldnt be everyones cup of tea I guess....

I thought prison was for punishment...

I'm at University and can only get BBC1, 2, ITV1 and C4. I pay for my TV licence and I don't complain.

Prisoners should have the bare minimum to survive and serve their time, not all these luxuries.

Sounds to me like a deal has been struck with a cable/satellite company to provide this fairly arbitrary set of channels rather than an OTA feed. If the prison service is making money off it, then of course they can't allow prisoners to access FTA television.

More to the point is prisoners who have paid for Freeview boxes no longer being able to use them. Seems a little unfair to me.

How on earth can watching the dross that is television be rehabilitating? At best it keeps the mindless drones passive, but crap like Celebrity Big Brother and fantasy like Doctor Who is hardly the sort of thing that will make them into better people.

Ban TVs in prisons, and make them go to school instead.

Oh, wait, good teaching is expensive, TV pap is cheap.

Lucky they have anything really, once the digital swutch takes place in certain areas of the country we wont be able to get any TV without a satellite dish/lnb for each TV/Recorder as there are no plans to replace our analogue signals due to costs. Satellite dishes are currently banned from many buildings which should make it interesting. And we are among the first to be switched off although I don't remember any of this being on the manifesto.

Typically the prison in our area is in a location suitable for picking up a neighbouring area's signal unlike the majority of the population.

"Given that The Reg quotes a fairly extreme right-wing set of morons ("The Taxpayers Alliance") this is hardly a credible article."

Wow, if that's extreme then what are those naughty Germans who caused a bit of a disturbance a few years ago, or that nice man who runs Iran these days? I'm sure they too have the wise allocation of government revenue as a top priority.

If morale is the prison service's top priority, why not bring whores in to keep the customers, erm, inmates happy? That should keep them nicely shagged out so they won't have the energy to do anything destructive. it might even take their minds off of the next episonde of Prison Break, or Prisoner Cell Block H, or Porridge or whatever other professional interest programs they like to watch.

Here's a thought, if you make prison sufficiently horrible, they might think twice about coming back in! Then again, with sentencing as it is today, a Sky+ box would hold enough TV to catch up with after a spell in klink.

Is it just me or is the Reg now suddenly harder than Tatchers balls ?

Prisoners are punished by denying them their liberty to interact with society - beyond that they should be rehabilitated.

If they are going to be denied channels then they should be the lightweight propaganda channels like BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Ch4 and Ch5. Make them watch the documentary channels ! Make them watch some decent European news channels. Cause you know, unless they get access to some decent educational TV then they are just going to turn it off and play Grand Theft Auto instead, and you know what that leads to...

I been reading peoples comments about this topic and the article. To be honest the article it self doesnt give enough information. What level/grade of prison is it? High secure unit those who done murders? low unit for those who just did robbery of house ?(with no GBH)

I think these things need to be taken into account before declaring all prisoners useless / waste of space / time. They are having punishment but then there are those who could argue those who have commited no crime but are living on streets with no food no bed etc are worse off. But you could also say that is also why many turn to crime because they have nothing they turn to drugs to feel a bit better it ends up in a bitter cycle.

Where GBH and murder/rape is concerned I dont think any of those types of prisoners should get any privalages what so ever. I have experienced myself being attacked. Wouldnt want anyone to go through that not even the person who did it to me.

I have had a burglary recently, s/he ran off. CSI came took fingerprints and everything but nothing much came of it. I dont feel that these types of "prisoners" deserve less human rights or privalage to get to see a TV.

I think the sentance length should also dictate what privalages they should / not get.

Since there is now some silly sentances for prisoners, such as those for truancy where the parents get sent to jail for the children leaving the school premises for example.. I think is rediculous, it doesnt make the children respect the parent anymore.

Keep your thinking realistic, dont broaden the range of stereo types by generalising "prisoners are all same they all deserve what they get in prison thats why they are there attitude" because I feel some of the laws are a bit... twisted and wrong.

Think there needs to be clarification of what crime has been commited to what privalages / rights they have within prison.

**Okay I am sorry for all errors/typos made I am awful speller and I am also sick at the moment with I think flu. Just thought I would add that. **

Alot of people seem to be very short-sighted. From a moral angle these people ARE behind bars - they've been convicted, whether they're sentence is apt is another discussion. They are denied their freedom. From an economical stance, if it helps rehabilitate/raise moral then so be it. As many of you say, you don't want (anymore) scrounging dole eating chavs :)