Plaid Cymru AM Chris Franks has discovered that there have been 65 incidents uncovered of prisoners in Welsh and English jails using social networking sites such as Facebook – up from 40 just a month ago.
Chris Franks, who represents South Wales Central, believes the incidents uncovered are the tip of the iceberg and has urged the prison authorities to step up monitoring.
Two of the 65 cases discovered were in Welsh prisons – Swansea and the privately-run Parc Bridgend, a Freedom of Information request made by the South Wales Central AM discovered.
In February Justice Secretary Jack Straw revealed that 30 Facebook pages had been taken down because prisoners were using them to taunt their victims. He also said that a better system for policing websites was needed.
The Ministry of Justice told Chris Franks on March 16th, 2010, that since the early part of 2009 there had been over 40 reported cases where prisoners had personal profiles on Facebook since early 2009. But, they said, it had not been possible to establish in all cases where the profiles had been created or maintained by prisoners while in custody or by third parties outside the prison system.
When the Plaid AM sought further information, he was told on April 13th, 2010, that the number reported to the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) Headquarters had now risen to 65. The Ministry of Justice confirmed that in both the Swansea and Parc cases the Facebook profiles were both created and maintained by inmates.
In its response to Chris Franks, the Ministry of Justice said: “Prisoners are strictly prohibited from using social networking sites such as Facebook. However, there have been a number of ways in which prisoners have been able to gain unauthorised access to social networking sites by using illicit mobile phones to directly access the websites; using a “proxy” (using PIN phones, letters or visits to personally instruct friends or family to update their sites), or accessing the internet while temporarily out of prison on ROTL (Release On Temporary Licence), but when such activity is brought to the attention of NOMS officials these will be thoroughly investigated and appropriate action taken, both to address the breach of rules and to notify social networking sites in order to remove relevant content from the sites.
“The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) is determined to address the risks that mobile phones present to security and the safety of the public. It has implemented a strategy to minimise, find and disrupt mobile phones in prisons.
“NOMS has made good progress in implementing the recommendations which address illicit mobile phones, including:
- publishing a guide to assist prisons in tackling mobile phones,
- progressing work on mobile phone signal denial in prisons; and
- providing all prisons with a Body Orifice Security Scanner and hand held metal detectors, which can detect mobile phones, even those stored internally.”
Plaid Cymru AM Chris Franks said: “Clearly, the number of incidents being discovered may be the tip of the iceberg. The rise in prisoners gaining access to Facebook in just a month suggests that monitoring has only been rigorously carried out since it was revealed that some prisoners were using the site to taunt victims.
“If any prisoners on remand are able to gain access to sites like Facebook it does throw up the possibility of intimidation of witnesses in major cases. Monitoring needs to be stepped up further.”
