Scottish Conservatives Demand Withdrawal of Prisoners’ Phones

Edinburgh: The Scottish Conservatives have called for the withdrawal of the free mobile phones which were given to every prisoner in Scotland to maintain family ties during the Covid pandemic. Around 7,600 handsets were issued soon after the virus first struck in 2020. The initiative has been praised by prisoners’ family charities, while the Scottish Government has said the phones are “vital in addressing the negative aspects of Covid-19 in our prisons”. The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) has said it is “fully supportive of them continuing in use”. However, the Tories demanded the scrapping of the scheme after figures obtained in a Freedom of Information request showed that nearly 1,900 of the phones had been confiscated due to misuse. Although the phones were meant to be tamper-proof, and allow calls to be made only to known and security-cleared recipients, there have been widespread reports of them being modified in order to make calls to unauthorised numbers – raising fears that they are being used to organise drug deals.

The figures, released by the SPS, showed that Barlinnie had the most confiscations of phones, with 342, followed by Edinburgh with 262 and Shotts with 196. Russell Findlay, Scottish Conservative Shadow Community Safety Minister, said:  “This scheme was introduced in good faith at the start of lockdown but it has become a farce. These supposedly unhackable handsets were compromised almost immediately yet this was kept secret from the public and MSPs. “It is absolutely right that prisoners should have access to their families but this ill-conceived scheme has backfired badly… They must be withdrawn immediately and permanently, and any replacement must be safe and secure.” The Scottish Conservatives have recently claimed victory in one clash over prison security, when the Scottish Government bowed to Tory demands to introduce photocopying of incoming mail in all Scottish prisons, so that recipients receive a photocopy rather than what was originally posted. The measure is intended to prevent the smuggling of Spice-type drugs into jails.

Read more: Inside Time,https://rb.gy/oiocya