OK, here's how it works, from what I've seen working on the inside of a U.K. jail...
Prisoners in the UK get a small, alloted, ammount of funds that can be sent in by families. They can also work, which is stuff like putting baloons in plastic bags and the fuzzy bits on aeroplane headphones, or doing the cleaning or working the kitchen, which gets around £15 a week if they work full time. The more the offender works with the system, by helping out and using their inititative, the more chance they have of being referred for a promotion that can get them an extra couple of quid a week. This is used to buy fags, sweets and other minor luxuries, but they can also save it to buy something like a console/TV. Unless it's changed in the last 12 months since I quit my last prison position, all electrical appliances are checked for potential internet connections, and the current generation of consoles aren't allowed at all. I'm fairly certain that there's no phone or ethernet points in cells, and both prisons I've worked at have had wired internet, so I'm thinking that the possibility of charging phones is more important than the internet connectivity.
Also, while prison isn't a punishment, but an attempt at rehabilitation, I'd have to say that I hated every second I was behind those gates. I felt lonely, isolated and miserable, and I had keys to get out whenever I wanted. The thought of being locked behind those gates without any way out beyond waiting for my sentence to end terrifies me. Also, it might just be the stuff they gave the paedophiles, but prison coffee tastes like gone-off beef.
