A crackdown on ‘perks’ given to convicted male prisoner has recently been taken into effect, which will ban the use of television to watch violent and sexually explicit films. Also for the first two week of inmates being behind bars, they have now been required to wear a uniform as well as automatically losing any access to daytime TV and the use of gym equipment.

The following changes were made by Justice Secretary Chris Grayling and will apply to all jails across Wales and England, stating that “It has been too long that prisoners have been seen in the eyes of public as languishing their days away by watching TV, taunting victims on Facebook through the use of illegal mobile phones or just simply boasting that their lives in prison are like a ‘walk in the park’”.

He believes that with this new policy coming into play, it just isn’t enough to be rewarded with certain privileges for acting the way citizens are expected to act, instead the inmates will have to help other prisoners and work actively towards their rehabilitation.

However, last week Vicky Pryce, warned that when these change are brought into effect that it could increase in the amount of rioting that occurs due to the fact that in prison they isn’t much else to do but to watch T.V, it is one of the very little things that people have and if this is removed from their cells, it could end up leading to serious rioting before adding on the comment, “... that is not an overstatement”. However it should be noted that this message has been mentioned to all prisoners to make them aware of the changes since April/May last year to ensure the safety of the scheme.