‘Homesick prisoners should be able to Skype their children’ (Picture: Getty)

Prisoners should be given iPads so they can keep in touch with family and learn new skills while locked up, an adviser to the Ministry of Justice has claimed.

Having a tablet computer could help them improve their literacy and numeracy and let them FaceTime or Skype their children, Sir Martin Narey suggested.

This would allow them to maintain their family relationships and make their time in the cells more constructive, the former head of the prison service said.

‘We could look at giving prisoners iPads in their cells,’ he told the Times.


When he first joined the service in 1982, people were reluctant to give inmates phones and radios, he said.



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They could learn new skills behind bars (Picture: Getty)

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‘They were worried about having telephones on wings, but prisoners should be skyping or facetiming their children’, he said. ‘We should use technology for education and to maintain family times.’

Justice minister Michael Gove is currently considering the proposals, the paper reported.

Dame Sally Coates, leading a review of education in prisons, said that if prisoners were able to learn more in prison it could reduce reoffending.

‘If you haven’t got the skills to get a job, then you’re much more likely to reoffend’, she told The Times.

Not everyone was impressed by the suggestion.

So we are now planning on giving prisoners ipads – wont be long before they get company cars – #escapefromnewyork is the best idea — 88gravity⚡ (@88gravity) December 10, 2015

iPads so prisoners can Skype their families? Seriously? Prison is supposed to be a punishment, not like a hotel! — Steph (@stephy_kate) December 10, 2015

So prisoners are now getting iPads to contact their families and to do work on while people who don't commit crimes have to pay for them. — Andrew Spark (@Smashworld) December 10, 2015

However, others praised the suggestion with Twitter user @ActaVerum described it as ‘British humaneness at its best.’