Outcry by prisoners who can only get NINE TV channels

Inmates say it is unfair because they currently get 40 channels on the set-top Freeview boxes which many have been allowed to purchase.

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One inmate, whose prison is piloting the switch to digital TV, told the official newspaper Inside Time: "Those of us who purchased Freeview boxes found they could no longer pick up any channels – basically they are dead.

"Why are they only making four extra channels available and who chose said channels?

"Will prisons be getting the full package in due course and if not, why?"

But critics said criminals should count themselves lucky they are allowed to receive any television channels in their cell while supposedly being punished for crimes such as rape and murder.

The inmates are still receiving the terrestrial channels BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5, plus four extra channels – ITV2, Film Four, The Music Factory Channel and Sky Sports News.

Inmates are allowed television sets in their cell as a reward for good behaviour.

They pay as little as £1 each week for the privilege and don't have to pay a licence fee.

Some convicts have saved their wages from work carried out behind bars to purchase set-top Freeview boxes, which cost around £40.

These give access to 40 channels, including music and movies.

But, in preparation for the switchover from analogue to digital television taking place across the country from 2008, the Prison Service has begun a trial run in a handful of prisons.

Officials have decided inmates will get nine channels. That is fewer than the 40 available on Freeview, but more than most people receive through the existing analogue service.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said : "Prisoners should count themselves lucky that they even have televisions because many ordinary people are struggling to pay their licence fees after recent tax rises.

"The idea that prisoners have a human right to access every television channel under the sun is absurd.

"Not only would this cost taxpayers millions of pounds, but it would also make a mockery of their prison sentence."

Carol Selema, of the Prison Service, said: "The number of channels available at present may change in the future, either up or down.

"The Prison Service is not under any obligation to provide prisoners with access to the full range of digital channels available to the generalpublic.

"Television in cell is a privilege and not a right. The nine channels that are available in the pilot sites were chosen centrally, but these can be changed locally if the governor so wishes."

Last October, actress Samantha Morton accused the Government of treating convicted paedophile prisoners better than children in care, by providing them with satellite TV and all mod cons.

The star – who grew up in a succession of children's homes – said she was disgusted by cushy conditions on a sex offenders' wing she visited while filming a role as killer Myra Hindley.

"The way they treat children in children's homes is appalling, yet these paedophiles have Sky telly," she said. "That shocked me."