Cell phone system will let prisoners call home

"First class" facilities that will see every cell at South Staffordshire's new £200 million prison fitted with a telephone so they can make outside calls have been condemned by an MP.

Prisoners at HMP Oakwood in Featherstone will also be able to order what food they want to eat and arrange who they want to visit them through the controversial phone system.

But Gavin Williamson MP said he believed the public would be annoyed that prisoners would get the sort of "hotel treatment" most people would have to pay for.

He said: "I have to say that when people go in to prison, you expect them to be treated with a certain amount of decency but at the end of the day, they are there to be punished.

You expect them to be given decent meals but that should not turn into a hotel service. Some of this smacks of being too much like first class hospitality and frankly, they are not in there to be given a cushy ride.

"I think we have got a lot to learn from the American penal system where prisoners are made to work hard all of the time.

It is expected that inmates will have to earn the right to use the telephone as a privilege, similar to the way prisoners have to earn the right to watch TV. Phone calls will be paid for my the inmates themselves.

It has already emerged that inmates will be allowed to wear their own clothing instead of jail uniforms to boost their self-esteem.

Bosses say such incentives help with rehabilitating offenders to prevent them from committing crime when they are released.

Director Steve Holland said: "I hope the prison will be a positive part of the community. The real focus is making sure offenders don't reoffend." The new jail is being built next to the current Featherstone Prison and Brinsford Young Offenders Institution.