Teenage prisoners can use Skype to call home

Young prisoners are keeping in touch with their families by using in-cell phones and Skype.

Inspectors praised HMP Parc for supporting teenage inmates to have “quality contact” with relatives. A report on the young persons’ unit at the prison said: “Boys could keep in contact using their in-cell telephones. Skype had been used for two boys in the last six months.”

The young persons’ unit at HMP Parc in Bridgend, South Wales, is managed by G4S and holds up to 60 boys aged between 15 to 18.

Janet Wallsgrove, G4S director for HMP Parc, said: “Skype forms a useful option, although uptake has been low.”