Just to recap, the Left – its strongest proponent on this being Will Self – wants people in prison to retain all their rights as citizens. My view is slightly at variance with this, in that I think prison is at best a waste of time and at worst a crime-breeder – but that people found guilty and sentenced to some form of detainment or correction should lose almost every right they have. Will wants them to have more rights, including the freedom to vote. I think punishment is about removing rights, especially the right to vote.

Prison has no point at all, but a sentence is by definition a restriction of rights: that’s the point – the person has behaved in an anti-social manner, and thus forfeits his or her rights. The rights they should retain are those of

* being treated humanely
* being protected from foreseeable danger
* being fed and kept as healthy as possible
* being offered the means to reform/be cured.

A right I would most assuredly remove from any prisoner is the right to obtain money as the result of suing a person or institution. By all means sue if they fall down on the four points above. But if they win, the maximum they can expect is the satisfaction of a Court finding in their favour. (My general view is that without the money element, very few of these cases would ever get off the ground).

As will be obvious to most readers, every prisoner in Britain could sue the Prison Service on Point Four. I would regard this is a good thing, although I wouldn’t start from there.
Every Fluffy emailer about this short piece will argue that I have thus removed all prisoners from equality before the law. But I have not: I have merely removed their right to profit from it.