Reading materials within HMP La Moye (FOI)

Request

In the UK it is the absolute right for friends and family of prisoners to take books and magazines into prison for a prisoner. It was stated by a High Court judge that it was important that these are their own possessions, so that there is no time limit, as there would be if these are borrowed from a library. For an avid reader, purchasing these from the prison's own system is not as quick or convenient and as these are new books purchased locally, would be very costly. It has been said that it is a security issue in Jersey, in which case how many times over the last three years was the system abused by prisoners and their families?

Response

Family and friends were able to bring books and magazines into the prison until two incidents, both in June 2020, resulted in a policy change preventing such items being allowed to be handed in and all original letters to prisoners being photocopied.

The incidents in question were when two papers were found to contain the synthetic cannabinoid agonist methyl, which is controlled under the Misuse of Drugs (Jersey) Law 1978.

There are systems in place to enable prisoners to order and purchase books, magazines and newspapers.