Prison gets £10,000 to teach inmates to stamp and click
A PRISON is spending nearly £10,000 on lessons to teach inmates how to stamp their feet and click their fingers.
The “body percussion” programme is to help them manage their anger.
It encourages cons to use different parts of their body, including slapping thighs and clapping hands, to make music.
Popular tracks to do it to include Pharrell Williams’ hit Happy, and Justin Timberlake’s Can’t Stop the Feeling.
A year-long contract at cash-strapped HMP Dartmoor has been handed to Wiltshire firm Kaboom!.
The Ministry of Justice said the £9,600 deal was for “cognitive-based therapy workshops”.
A recent inspection at HMP Dartmoor found it was failing to provide adequate living conditions, education and work opportunities for inmates.
HM Inspectorate of Prisons found prisoners were kept locked in their cells for too long at the Category C jail in Devon.
A Labour source said: “Our prison system is in total chaos. This move beggars belief and would be laughable if the Tories weren’t utterly incapable of keeping the public safe.”
One in nine prison officers left the job in the last year. And there have been around 450 assaults a week in prisons this year, an increase of nine per cent on the previous year.
The Prison Service said: “Schemes like this help cut crime, which protects the public and saves taxpayer money.”