Do you remember the news yesterday about inmates in the United Kingdom having access to PlayStation 3s? Well it turns out the prisoners at HMP Rye Hill, Warwickshire were never allowed to use any Wi-Fi enabled technology, including PS3s. Furthermore, a Ministry of Justice representative told IncGamers that no inmates in England and Wales have ever been allowed access to wireless enabled gaming consoles.
“A decision was taken some years ago that the then current generation of games consoles should be barred because the capability to send or receive radio signals is an integral part of the equipment,” the rep stated. “Future games consoles with this ability will be banned. This ban applies to Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo DS."
What’s more, a report last month showed that £220,000 GBP of taxpayers’ money was spent on consoles between 2005 and 2008. Prisoners now have to pay for their own consoles.
“Following a review of the Incentives and Earned Privileges scheme in relation to games consoles, such equipment has been removed from all prisoners except for those who are demonstrably well behaved, who commit to their sentence plan and fully comply with the prison regime. All 18-rated console games are banned. The cost of purchasing consoles and games now rests solely on the prisoner and is not met by the taxpayer.”
Still, no Wi-Fi enabled consoles will be allowed.
A spokesperson for G4S, the private firm which runs Rye Hill Prison, stated there were never any PS3s on site. Apparently inmates have only ever had access to the PS1 and the PS2.