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UK Taxpayers Footing the $500K Bill for PlayStations in Prisons

by Terrence O'Brien on August 7, 2008 at 11:39 AM

U.K. Tax-Payers Buying Playstations for Prisoners
One would think that when you go to jail, luxuries like PlayStation and Xbox would have to be left behind, but quite often in the UK, video games are finding their way into prisons, sometimes on the British taxpayer's dime.

A recent audit of the Prison Service found that it had spent £221,726 (almost $432,000) on consoles and video games for prisoners. Most of the roughly 13,000 consoles found in the country's jails were paid for by the inmates themselves, but 1,700 were purchased with taxpayer money.

The program has turned into a bit of a scandal and officials are already taking steps to quell the furor. Spending on video games and consoles for prisoners has been frozen and all titles rated for 18 and older only have been removed. The revelation that hundreds of thousands of pounds have been spent on entertainment at a time when rehabilitation programs in prisons are struggling for funding has many up in arms. As one British Justice said "Offenders should be learning and preparing for the world of work, not idly playing Grand Theft Auto and preparing to return to crime." [Source: Daily Mail]

Tags: crime, jail, prison

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