A few days ago we railed at Rye Hill Prison after it was reported that its inmates had somehow been given access to PlayStation 3 systems and were using them to communicate with the outside world. The government has since denied this ever happened, with the Ministry for Justice stating that Rye Hill has never handed out a PS3.
"There are not and never have been Playstation 3s at HMP Rye Hill," claims the Ministry in a statement. "Prisoners in England and Wales have never been allowed access to wireless enabled technology such as that used in some games 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. Future games consoles with this ability will be banned. This ban applies to Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo DS."
According to the spokesman, anything with access to the Internet is not to get into the hands of the inmates, which is a good thing for sure. It's bad enough that criminals are given game systems to start with, but if every new piece of hardware comes with Internet access, at least they'll be stuck playing with PS2s like idiots even twenty years from now.
Still, it's weird that The Guardian, a generally well-respected and non-sensenational paper, originally picked this story up. Was there smoke without fire, or have wires simply been crossed? We shall never know.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
10:40 AM on 06.17.2009
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The goverment says the truth. Jim is wrawng
Why the hell are inmates given games consoles in the first place? Surely the whole purpose of prison is punishment, they shouldn't be given excessive luxuries. Oh well, at least some annoying little kids would have been shouted at to shut up by murderers and rapists, those imature little bastards could be seen as a form of torture lol.
Anyway as far as I know - in Scotland anyway - it's PS2's they get in the cells and it's normally around one per floor, or so I've been told anyway. Might be different at one of the open prisons, but don't get me started on them!
The logic behind that would be "better these people are playing video games than shivving each other and running their drug cartels from a toilet-borne mailing system.
Seriously, there's a toilet-borne message system. Ever see an episode of lockdown?
Cost-cutting measures and the ballooning populations have seen things like job training and anger management programs cut, making reintegration into society and preventing recidivism more difficult. By comparison, having occasional game time is cheap.
the 360 cannot send or recieve radio signals without the wireless adaptor.
So now children, housewives, grandparents AND prisioners are playing Wiis =)
Now if someone mods one as a shiv sharpener... Hmmm.