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Earning and spending money in prison
New Prison Inspectors report on earning and spending money in prison reveals a number of injustices including the fact that pay has been frozen for 14 years.

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Life in prison

The Prison Inspectorate’s findings papers inevitably make for an interesting read. The most recent one (published in January 2016) is titled: Life in prison: earning and spending money draws on a large number of inspections of individual establishments to examine how the reality of earning and spending money inside compares with the inspectors’ expectations.

Context

How people earn and spend money in prison differs from the outside world. The most obvious difference is the absence of any physical money. Prisoners may have money from what they themselves bring into prison, what is sent in by family or friends or what they earn in prison. They can only spend money up to approved weekly limits depending on their remand or convicted status and their behaviour as assessed under the incentives and earned privileges scheme. Any money that is paid to prisoners for work, or sent in from their family, is stored by the prison and then transferred electronically to the prisoner on a weekly basis depending on their weekly spending limit. Although prison wages are low, prisoners do not have to pay for accommodation, their meals, basic toiletries or clothing if required. Some may be able to bring some approved items into prison with them or have them sent in by families or friends. Prisoners must provide for everything else themselves. They must purchase phone credit themselves and pay rent for a TV. Everything else must be purchased from the prison ‘shop’ or ‘canteen’. In public sector prisons this consists of a list of items, such as tobacco, non-prescribed medication, additional food and toiletries, hobby materials and stationery, chosen to meet the particular needs of individual prison populations from a national product list (NPL) of approved items. Prisoners may also purchase other items such as clothing or religious artefacts from approved retail catalogues for which prisons charge an administration fee. Private sector prisons have their own canteen arrangements. The money that a convicted prisoner can spend is also restricted based on their behaviour and level on the incentives and earned privileges (IEP) scheme which has four levels: entry; basic; standard and enhanced. The maximum a convicted prisoner is able to spend per week is £25.50 although most prisoners are limited to £15.50 (the limits are higher for remand prisoners) — these amounts have not changed since 2008. porridge

Earnings

The rate of prison pay has not been increased since 2002(!) and is set out in Prison Service Order 4460 which requires:
  • that all prisoners who are in some form of employment have to earn the minimum of £4 a week, although they can earn more; in 2010 the average working prisoner earned £10 a week
  • a mandatory rate of pay of £3.25 a week for those who are unable to work for health reasons or have reached retirement age
  • that those who wish to work, but are unable to due to a lack of activity places in the prison, are paid a minimum of £2.50 a week
  • that unconvicted prisoners who choose to work are paid the same as convicted prisoners.

The cost of calling home

Prisoners buy telephone credit, which they can purchase in £1 increments through the canteen. Despite official recognition that maintaining contact is important, the cost of making a telephone call from prison can be expensive. Calls to mobiles — the only option for many prisoners — at a prison recently inspected were advertised as costing 20.4p per minute on weekdays and 13.2p per minute at weekends. Therefore, a 30-minute call costs £6.12 during the week and £3.96 at the weekend. So a prisoner on maximum earnings could not afford to call his/her family twice per week for an hour in total.

Canteen

Prisoners rely on ordering goods from the prison canteen for all but the barest necessities of life. Inspectors found that many new prisoners have very limited access during their first days and weeks in prison:
Fewer than a quarter (23%) of prisoners surveyed said that they had access to canteen when they first arrived in prison. In local prisons, where most prisoners begin their sentences, the proportion fell to 21%. For many individuals, this is their first experience of prison life and they may not be sufficiently aware of the need to avoid borrowing and the associated debt. It can often take up to two weeks for a prisoner to receive their first canteen order.
[For more details on prisoners’ first experiences of prison life, see another recent Findings report: The first 24 hours in prison.] Inspectors also found that fewer than half the prisoners they surveyed (47%) felt that their canteen had a wide enough range of goods to meet their needs. There was a lack of healthy foods and both Black and Muslim prisoners felt that their choice was even more limited with many basic culturally appropriate toiletries and foodstuffs unavailable. Additionally, on the whole canteen items were dearer than they would be in mainstream supermarket. The inspectors’ table below does not include any supermarket special offers or promotions: canteen prices

Conclusions

The inspectors acknowledge that prisoner pay is always likely to be a controversial issue but still make five strong recommendations:
  1. There should be a review of prisoner pay and money in possession rates, which have not changed since 1992 and 2008 respectively.
  2. Allowances for older prisoners and others who are unable to work should be reviewed and should provide sufficient income to cover new TV rent charges and other reasonable basic items.
  3. Pay should be linked to performance and effort in work, education or training and not disincentivise education or offender behaviour work.
  4. Prisoners should not be charged an administration fee for catalogue orders.
  5. National and international charges for telephone calls from prisons should be reviewed to achieve equivalence with similar charges in the community.

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33 Responses

  1. Russell,
    Good piece and informative as always. You may wish to know that there is a limit put in place on a time limit on how long the telephone call can last. In most prisons it is 5 min maximum then one has to wait 10 mins to bee connected. The maximum an offender can down in one day is also constrained.

    The one bit of relief is for those foreign national prisoners as the prison recognises that calls abroad are expensive who can access funds from their private account for telephone calls and this will not affect their canteen account.

    My question would be to see if the prison service made money of the telephone system

    1. Of course they do. You think it costs 50 cents to make a phone call? That’s literally almost all profit for the prisons

  2. Hi TC
    Thanks very much for the comment. I know some of the new build prisons have in cell phones which makes the business of keeping in touch with family and friends much more human.

  3. I’m so concerned my partner is in jail ..I’ve bin sending 60 poi d a month he’s hardly ringing the phone I even had a landline fitted ..I suspected hi, of cheeting …how cam I fonf out of he’s ti hi g her he’s telling me its only 1560 a week but vie bin told u vs spend ptivsyr spends on his phone is that the truth..plus has g wing gut double orvdingle cells

  4. No sympathy for the prisoner with their £2.50 a week. All the sympathy in the world to the families…. I spend over half my life showing compassion and sympathy to prisoners and their familoes, do them or their family have sympathy or compassion to my family that I dont see? No? Thought so

  5. I’m pleased to hear prisoners can hire a tv and buy snacks. Can families and friends send in gifts for Christmas and birthdays, or can they order gifts from approved sites/prison canteen?

  6. Why can you buy a PlayStation 2 for £30 yet in prison they have to pay £90. Extorting prisoners who will put pressure on family for money is not very ethical.

  7. Seriously like, fs they’re in jail, it’s 3 meals a day, a bed, a hot shower, a gym, association etc, and pure peace from the outside world, total bliss, can’t cry about your time, if you committed a crime, end of.

    1. You make it sound lovely. I had a friend who got sent to prison, nothing violent. When he came out he was a wreck, lost a lot of weight and had to see a psychiatrist. He said it was the worst experience of his life.

        1. It’s really not. Prison is meant to rehabilitate you. What’s the point of torturing someone who committed a crime. Only to release them. Then they do the same damn thing and probably worst now that their heads fucked up.

          Let’s not forget the unbelievable numbers of innocent people behind bars. At least if we treat prisoners well it will lessen the harm done to innocents.

          1. Totally agree with you. But you got keyboard warriors chatting shit about what they don’t know nor understand.

    2. Each prisoner gets £2.35 per day spent on their food (which has just gone up) 3 meals a day what can that buy, you have no idea what your talking about, families have to supplement what they need saving the prison loads of money..Showers are usually cold, heating turned off so another floor can get warm, the list goes on, don’t believe everything you read in the papers see on t.v.

  8. My son has been falsely accused during a family court proceeding His EMU won’t even look at his evidence proving his innocence as did the police or cafcass. He works in the prison has done courses of NVQ and shows he is a good citizen been done over by his ex she has used the whole system to spite him in this cruel way. Why is there not help for these innocent men all they try to do is make them admit something they never did. At weekends he spends 29 hrs in his cell before he’s allowed out for 20 -40 min to do everything eat shower phone calls. I think the real criminal is his ex and her accomplices who put him there not him.

  9. I was wondering something. If you don’t spend the money you earn in prison do you get to take it with you when you leave? Do you pay tax on it?

    What sort of jobs do women do in prison?

    Are you allowed mobiles? Is there an internet ban?

    If you get a PlayStation when do you play it?

    1. You get your money in cash on release. No tax.

      No mobiles.

      You play your playStation whenever you want. If you have a cellmate you play it when they dont wanna watch tv.

    2. LOL pay tax what a joke. At $2.30 a week what would the tax be after exemptions! What a life 3 meals hot hollewood showers No bills Who cares what the family thinks just send the BUCKs.! LIFEs a bitch THey say crime doesn’t pay But free room and meals !

  10. Society has locked up some of the best brains in the Country Why not Turn Prisons into the Good Bad and Ugly League With Points make Prizes the Costs of Keeping Them Warm and Fed with clean Clothes Shoes Free TV they Need Brain Stimulation Maybe Running their Contributed efforts into Stock Exchange or online BitCoin Software Games that benefit society and Help their Costs that increase their well being , I fully understand the Feeling in Society for Families who have been Traumatized with Thieves Bodily Harm or Murder Rape Drugs plus all the Scammers What ever we all Think in our own Way, We do need to find a More Productive Program to Benefit Both Sides of the Spectrum, Plus Maybe only right to Compensate their Victims. The UK Prison Leagues of Repaying Society Points Make Prizes in Humanity Welfare Maybe they can Leave Prison with a % profit from their Collective efforts. Seek a New Way to Help

  11. Hey my partner has been locked up on remand since October and they still no releases him he told me he only gets allowance of £7 a week how awful I mean he calls me every week but said he can only call longer duringa weekdays cos it cost him lot of money on weekdays I just he is ok as he’s innocent and waiting for his court date next month so they have locked him up all this time without proving he’s guilty the justice system seems confusing to me?

    1. No way. He can spend at least £15 a week, majority of the time its £25. If he is on remand he can spend about £50 a week as long as he has money on his account

    2. It’s also cheaper after 6pm. Get a Skype number, it gives you a landline number for £5 a month so he doesn’t have to call your mobile if your not home.

  12. Not everyone in prison convicted of a crime is guilty. A recent case against a young woman went wrong for her because the police could not decide what she was actually guilty of! I spent the last ten months with her getting to know her and soon found out that from her fourteenth birthday her grandma passed away who she lived with and she became homeless. While the government have systems in place, clearly these systems have failed. Her mother has mental health issues and was not considered suitable for bringing children up, hence living with her grandma. I’ve learned that she has no immediate family to support her and she had been living rough on the streets for some years. Now when we are young we think we are invincible but as time waits for nobody, living on the street is hard enough, but as you age you suffer more. The main things seem to be food and clothing to homeless people. Now while there are state benefits in the UK, about £300 per month is not a lot when you consider such items has clothing and food. It’s not like we have a louderette on each street anymore because they have all but closed down, hence homeless people need people who can provide facilities to help them, but my limited last ten months or so has shown that even members of my own family are hostile towards homeless people.

    This young woman had an addiction problem and I learned that she got it because of one of her ex boyfriends who she met on the streets and was considerably older than she was. He’d been an addict for many years and through whatever means got her into the addiction. I’ve spent ten months helping her and got her on a script, but the damage she caused herself with her health was severe by now. Trips to the NHS for serious treatments took place and because she was not receiving the methadone required and serious withdrawal symptoms, she new her monthly allowance was due and got some bloke to pick her up from hospital. He took her to another blokes flat who said she could stay with him. Around 24 hours later I got a phone call asking me to go to his flat and pick her up. On my arrival she did not exit the flat so I went home again. When I got home I got another phone call and the bloke on the phone asked me if I had the womans monthly allowance, which I said does not go into the bank until after midnight, and then he said, well I’ll be taking all her money as she owes it to me, so I said looks looks like the money will not get transferred then!

    Another bloke came on the phone and said he would not get a penny. I was asked again to go and pick her up. When I got there she was in his bed. Her health was in a serious condition. I said to the flat owner why is she here in your bed when she should be in hospital! He said he’d rang for an ambulance and I said well I’ve got a car and can take her now, but he insisted that the ambulance was on its way. I left her there in his care but in the early hours of the morning I was getting phone calls asking for her money. She told me she was getting a taxi to my home to collect her money but didn’t. She asked me to transfer her money to this mans bank account and I asked her are you sure? She said yes so after 8.00am the following morning I transferred her money to his account (the flat owner). She rang me later asking how much money I’d transferrred and told me that he kept £250. I was asked if the police were contacted would they help and I said probably not!

    She rang some blokes she knows and they went to the flat armed with knives. The flat owner rang the police and had her arrested for aggraved burgulary. The blokes who attended did that but not her, however, because of her addiction and not being able to speak for herself the police visted me a couple of times for information, and the incorrectly charged her because the police officer told me he did not know what to make or believe of what she was saying to him. Now she is on remand and the blokes who were armed with a knife are roaming the streets free. The same bloke her attended the flat with the knife also burguled another flat that same day and is still free on the streets, but the woman who only wanted her monthly allowance taken from her is on remand!

    How does the justice system work? You use the system to your advantage and manipulate the system to get a crime going against the innocent, put the real criminals on the streets to make more crime so that agencies like the police force, the probation services can keep the funds coming in from central government for as long as humanly possible! Am I wrong, I doubt it, money and jobs must be made to keep the economy going.

    If at the end of the day somebody convicted is found not guilty, it does not matter because the tax payer will pick up the bill and the legal system carryon business as usual. Research has shown that its been like that for the last two thousand years. Peace will never happen while peoples kids called governments keep breeding crime. The legal system is broken and totally failed in the UK.

  13. What work partys do women get when first convinced? And do women get an emergency canteen sheet when first go in?

  14. Half the people in prison are innocent of the crime like my brother cps staff was talking o the jury outside they even went to the same cafe and sat at their table but nothing happened when reported the juror was raped a year before but was never taken off the one that accused my brother couldn’t remember the the date or time it happened he’s been inside for two years now and the cps has finally said what days it happened on good news is he was in a police cell 400 miles away in Scotland

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