As is so often the case, this is an exercise in headline-grabbing rather than in actually creating a prison system that encourages inmates not to return.
With the exception of institutionalised long-term inmates who simply cannot cope with life outside the prison system, it is hard to imagine any inmate has a return visit uppermost in his or her mind when they return to civilian life.
The curtailment of freedom is the essence of the punishment, and the so-called 'luxuries' that everyone with no experience of prison gets so get up about are not really luxuries at all.
If the government, and right-wing commentators seriously imagine that depriving inmates of television - and therefore giving them hours upon hours to contemplate their situation (remember a lot of them lack the basic literacy skills for alternative distractions like reading) is going to improve the attitudes of the incarcerated, then that shows naivity at a breath-taking level.
A little escapism to prevent obsessive consideration of home and damily life carrying on without the individual serving a sentence cannot be seen as unreasonable - part from which, television provides a valuable link to the outside world in terms of news and cultural input.
Where do we draw the line? let's not give them clothes, or bedding, or baths and toilets - that should reap a host of right-wing votes at election time.
But will it address fundamental issues about education and social interation, and the chance of pointing out some alternative life choices that don't involve crime and punishment? Unlikely.
Oh, and anyone who starts a reply to this post with "So you think ..." will, as previously advised, be receiving a sharp rebuke by return!