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[Australia]

Playstations, movies are perks for Victorian prisoners

By Liam Houlihan
Sunday Herald Sun
November 09, 2008 02:59am

PLAYSTATIONS, a four-channel pay-TV service and a special movie station are available to Victoria's high-security prisoners.

Jails have approved PlayStation game consoles for 65 inmates this year.

About 50 consoles have gone to prisoners in jails for the worst offenders - Barwon and Port Phillip prisons.

Inmates who have a game system in their cell must pay for it and cannot play games rated higher than PG.

But taxpayers are footing the bill for inmates to receive pay-TV at Loddon and Fulham prisons.

The service is also in cells at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, which houses body-in-the-boot killer Tania Herman.

Critics are angry offenders such as murderers and rapists are getting the perks.

The Crime Victims Support Association said it made a mockery of victims and that many decent, working Victorians could not afford pay-TV.

The Justice Department refused to identify which prisoners had received PlayStations.

But serious offenders at Barwon and Port Phillip who could be enjoying the entertainment systems include multiple murderers Paul Denyer, Gregory Brazel, John Sharpe, Carl Williams and Julian Knight.

Victoria's 4000-plus prisoners have a movie channel in their cells, screening dramas and new films.

Authorities said the stimulation helped inmates connect to the outside world and excluded R and X-rated shows.

Corrections Victoria said prisoners were kept in their cells for an average of 12 hours per day.

"Restricted access to films is an important management tool which ensures the good order and security of the prison," a spokeswoman said.

"Watching films in prison is a privilege, not a right."

Two of the four pay-TV channels prisoners receive must be documentary and education-based. The content cannot exceed an MA rating.

An insider said when inmates were transferred between prisons they sometimes brought their PlayStations with them.

But the source said despite the perks, "doing time is not a day spa".

The prison PlayStation revelation comes as new research from Iowa State University shows violent video games may make young people highly aggressive in later months.

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