Summary
Mr C complained about the prison's decision not to allow him to have his hi-fi system in use. He was unhappy as he had been allowed to use this in his previous prison. The prison explained to him that they do not permit the use of systems with detachable speakers.
We asked the prison about this and they provided us a copy of their policy which supported their decision. They noted that there was not yet a national policy for permissible electrical items and it was down to the discretion of prison governors to set a local policy for each prison.
As the prison's decision was in line with their local policy, we did not uphold the complaint. However, we acknowledged the current potential for inconsistencies across the prison estate and noted that we are aware this was already being looked at, with a view to setting a standardised national policy.
Related reading
View Decision Report 201403484 as a PDF (11.02 KB) Updated: March 13, 2018