LANDLINE PHONE IN ALL PRISON CELLS

New plan means cons will lose mobiles given to them during Covid

- SALLY HIND

PRISONERS are to get landlines in their cells instead of mobile phones which were used to arrange gangland crimes.

Handsets were handed out to inmates to keep them connected with loved ones during the pandemic.

But they were abused by thousands of cons who inserted illicit sim cards to make clandestine calls.

The SPS and Scottish Government confirmed the controversial taxpayer-funded phones are being "phased out" and will be recovered from inmates in the coming months.

But a multi-million pound programme of installing landlines for cons will be rolled out, after prison chiefs found jail phones brought benefits such as improved prisoner behaviour.

Opposition MSPs yesterday called for the full cost of the landline roll-out to be revealed and demanded assurances the new system will not repeat "serious past mistakes" with mobile phones.

The mobile scheme handed thousands of devices to prisoners in 2020, with limited call minutes and text and internet usage blocked on the prison approved numbers. But smuggled sims allowed these restrictions to be bypassed.