HMP Hull has started their very own TV show, with the prisoners as the stars broadcasting from their cells.
The prison has given inmates the chance to shine by giving them their big TV break by allowing them to broadcast their own show and learn media skills to appear in television shows to entertain their fellow prisoners.
Inmates film and edit footage under supervision before it is broadcast. The channel, called HTV.
Even the former Hull Governor Tony Oliver has presented the show. Dressed like a TV news anchor with the added effects of a backdrop of the Humber Bridge and a ticker-tape of news updates along the bottom of the screen.
The show even goes to the extent of inviting bosses from the Prison Service to come along and talk about their work. They even have one inmate and one member of staff who come onto the show to entertain the inmates with guitar sessions.
Now Governors from other Prisons are now watching the TV scheme at HMP Hull in the hope to launch sister stations in the new year.
A source said: “This is giving the men useful work and genuine skills which could get them a job in the media on the out. We’ve got to try anything as the present system just isn’t working.
“We are seeing the same faces coming in and out so trying something like this could help break the cycle.”
Tony Oliver said in an interview “I invited a member of staff who has been doing some one-to-one work with some guitar lessons with a prisoner and they came on to screen recently and did a bit of a guitar session which I think was really well received and demonstrated that prisoner-staff relationship in a very visual and impactful way.
“That’s what we’ve been able to do using HTV this way.”
There are also plans to allow lags to record them reading stories which will be sent to their loved ones on the outside. Mr Oliver said he had taken on the role of “roving reporter” to bring in latest jail news, such as updates on facilities like the gym.
