They get ‘bang-up’ pay and can earn wages
“If you haven’t got a job, you’re on £2.50 bang-up pay,” explained Matty, who is now being supported through Recycling Lives following prison time for offences including shoplifting and burglary. “You need money in jail, you do need money. Some jobs pay different; if you’re a wing cleaner you get £10 a week. If you’re in a workshop you might get £15 a week.”
A prisoner working in a Recycling Lives workshop.
Prisoners earnings can vary across the UK, across different prisons and even within them. As Matty worked in a Recycling Lives workshop in prison, he received £15 a week to spend and £40 paid into a savings account.
Pay for prisoners went up this year by £1 a week – that’s the first increase in a decade.
“My partner receives 50p ‘bang-up’ pay a day and the wages for either the job or education he is accessing, roughly £11 (I know it varies across prison),” said one listener who emailed Money Box Live.
“From this he buys phone credit and canteen. Calls are expensive and phone line is better than mobile. When wages don’t come through he can’t phone or get canteen. Family do what we can so we can stay in contact.”
‘Canteen’ in prison refers to the groceries they are able to buy separate to the meals provided.
Many prisoners start in debt
Although it varies between prisons and across the UK, prisoners will usually be given a pack of essentials on arrival. In Matty’s prison, the cost was £20.
It can be known as a reception pack, comfort pack or first night pack and may include tea, milk and toiletries. Official guidance is that prisoners should be told that the cost of the pack will be recovered from their future earnings and that they can refuse to accept it if they don’t want to repay that.
As well as that official debt, some prisoners borrow money from each other. “A lot of people get into debt in prison because they’re borrowing things and they can’t pay it back,” Matty said. “And that’s where the violence comes in.”
The Ministry of Justice told Money Box Live that “debt fuels violence in prisons” and that’s why it “offers a range of support to prisoners to help them with their finances”.
Prisoners pay for phone calls, emails and TV
“You have to 50p for your electric,” Matty says. “50p for your TV. That’s if you’re in with somebody, if you’re on your own it’s £1. And then you’ve got to pay 50p for your loan, so that £2.50’s already gone.”
“Using eMates to message my partner, costs 68p,” explained one listener who did not give their name. “42p for my message and a reply sheet so he can answer, costing 26p.”
Unilink, which is the parent company of eMates, told Money Box Live that it knows how important communication is in supporting people in prison. It’s working towards changing to a subscription service in the next few months, which it says would “significantly” reduce the costs.
