Inside Time - Mailbag

In-cell TV rental costs

From: Darren Seago – HMP Liverpool

Please could you direct me to the PSO concerning the price a prison can charge for television rental. I am being charged £1 per week, which is the same price for everyone whether you are in a single, double or dormitory cell. Common sense and logic would dictate that the price be divided evenly.

What would happen if one person in a double refused to pay for the TV? Would the cell mate still have to pay the same as someone in a single cell? With four inmates in a dorm, all paying £1, the prison is in effect receiving more rental than they have television sets!

Response from: The Ministry of Justice

The policy for In-Cell TV is set out in Part 3 of PSO 4000, Incentives & Earned Privileges, which can be viewed in your prison library. Charging for In-Cell TV is covered at Paragraph 4.6 which states: ‘All TVs are to be Prison Service owned and their costs will be recovered from prisoners. No other charges are to be made to cover other expenditure, e.g. electricity or administration. Establishments are required to recover from prisoners a £1 per week, or part week, rental charge for each set. The charge, which includes VAT, is per set, not per prisoner, and should be recovered from the prisoner’s spend account. Prisoners in multi-occupancy cells will normally be expected to contribute equally to the cost of renting the set. This charge may be varied from time to time by issue of an instruction from Prison Service Headquarters’.

Therefore those prisoners sharing a double cell should only be charged 50p per week. We have checked with HMP Liverpool and they have confirmed that Mr Seago being charged £1 a week while sharing a double cell was due to a misunderstanding of the policy following the establishment switching to P-NOMIS; the new prison service computer system.

The establishment amended their policy from week commencing 23 November 2009 and all prisoners will be refunded for any overpayment they have been charged.

MAILBAG...