Putting phones into prison cells is dialling up trouble

THE installation of phones in prison cells will apparently coincide with a fresh crackdown on mobile phones and drugs and reduce violence when queuing for phones (“Anger at £7m plan to give prisoners phones in cells”, July 10).

There’s something ironic in this because there should be a permanent crackdown and even with “restricted” phone numbers, the privacy of an in-cell phone will provide plenty of opportunities to run illicit business, as goes on now.

The shambolic state of our prisons is down to the failing contracts with private companies that have little to do with rehabilitation and everything to do with saving money. Mike Crump, Wolverhampton