Dorina Lisson sent me the following information on prisons in Australia:
Prisoners are watching pay-TV movies in their cells, at a cost to taxpayers of tens of thousands of dollars. Pay-TV packages for Victoria's prisons cost thousands of dollars a month, data obtained under Freedom of Information reveals. Prison sources have revealed that Melbourne Remand Centre units have been fitted out with new flat-screen TVs.
Fulham Prison signed a three-year contract, for more than $70,000, to stream movie channels into cells. Loddon Prison pays almost $1000 a month for Austar pay-TV channels. The Judy Lazarus Transition Centre spends almost $600 a month on Foxtel packages. Inventories of shops at Langi Kal-Kal Prison and Barwon Prison reveal inmates can buy snacks such as stuffed olives and "Movietime popping corn". In Beechworth Prison and The Metropolitan Remand Centre, prisoners can treat themselves to ice creams. Some of the worst prisoners in Ararat Prison, also have access to new adidas shoes, doonas and christmas cakes.
A Department of Justice spokesman confirmed inmates, who can spend up to 16 hours a day in their cells, could channel-surf. But he declined to say what channels were available or detail any restrictions. Expensive items such as watches and shoes were sold at prices lower than ordinary Victorians pay in shops.
In male prisons, moisturisers, loofas, gels and aftershaves are available. Female inmates in the maximum-security Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, are allowed up to 144 products a year from a selection of mascaras, eye shadow, hair treatments, tinted moisturisers and butterfly clips.
A Corrections Victoria spokesman said "a limited number of pay-TV channels, one of which must be educational or documentary-based, are available at three prisons, as this is a cheaper option to video or DVD hire". He declined to reveal details of computer games or what DVDs had been hired. Instructions for renting DVDs above an MA rating demand a register be kept.
Victims of crime spokesman Noel McNamara said it was a disgrace that inmates could get discounted goods. "It just defies the imagination. That they have all these luxuries that they wouldn't have at home doesn't make sense at all. "Prison is a place of punishment," he said.
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