My point was not whether or not this was official policy - I'd be amazed if it was and I've now said several times that I'm sure it wasn't anything official or in written form - but that someone was stirring up trouble, by choosing a very emotional time of the year and a very emotional issue, and saying something stupid about it. I didn't have the time, the remit or the clout to go searching out the officer concerned, but I have no doubt that something WAS said to this particular prisoner on this particular wing, because otherwise why on earth would he have been so upset and come to the session with that on the top of his mind?
Yes, Emma, it might well be a security issue, but in that case the officer concerned should have said that rather than leaving the prisoner with the clear impression that it was to do with not offending other prisoners (no mention was made of "immigrants", McGrath, the term was "other faiths" - there are quite a few faiths which don't celebrate Christmas, not all of them imported).
I'll close my share of this "discussion" by saying that it's very easy for those of you sitting at home to make the assumption that the prisoner must have been wrong, that I must have been mistaken, that this could never have happened - having met the man concerned and been in the prison concerned I remain convinced that an officer said something stupid to him, which had the effect of adding to why he was (a) critical of that particular prison and (b) jangled and unhappy about Christmas in prison.   Just because you don't think it should have happened (and I'm with you on that) doesn't mean it didn't. As to passing on a "rumour" - this wasn't a rumour. It was said to me by the person who had been told he couldn't have decorations in his cell.   Oh, and "anti-islamic"? Let's say it once again - in this case the phrase was "other faiths".

Anne