ENDING SOCIAL MEDIA USE IN PRISONS
Used Justice Questions today to again raise my campaign to end social media use in prison and call on the Justice Secretary to ensure prisoners found to have used social media in prison are punished robustly. As I’ve made clear at length in the House of Commons before on multiple occasions, the punishments available for this serious crime must include reviewing the sentences of those found guilty and adding years to their sentence for their harmful actions.
These posts are immensely distressing for victims and each time they appear they send out a poor message about our criminal justice system to prisoners and those who may be thinking about committing a crime. It’s clear that not enough of the prisoners responsible are brought to book, and when they are, the slap-on-the-wrist punishments handed out through prisons’ internal discipline processes aren’t a sufficient deterrent to stop it happening again. I understand that all those convicted for killing Tavis Spencer-Aitkens in Ipswich have now posted on social media. Clearly there is a sense this is something prisoners can get away with.
I remain in close contact with Tavis’s family to ensure this is put to an end in their case in particular. And I’ll keep raising this issue until victims don’t have to be anxious every time they check their phone and there are punishments with teeth in place including extended sentences. We must be unapologetic about putting our justice system on the side of victims and in saying that our prison system exists first and foremost to punish criminals.
Leave a Reply