Drug addicted prisoners receive compensation for being forced to go cold turkey
If this kept up, addicts would learn they can commit a crime to get locked up where they have a right to be supplied with drugs.
By Daily Mail Reporter
Drug-addicted prisoners have received compensation because their human rights were breached when they were forced to go cold turkey, it was revealed today.
Around £11,400 was paid to three inmates at Winchester Prison in Hampshire after a court ruled that it was a breach of their human rights to deny them drugs such as heroin and substitute substances.
The cash payments were revealed in a Freedom of Information Act (FoI) request by the Southern Daily Echo newspaper.
£11,400 was paid to three inmates at Winchester Prison after a court ruled that it was a breach of human rights to deny them drugs.
The money was part of about £50,000 paid out in one year to seven inmates at the prison.
The FoI request also revealed that one prisoner was given £14,250 because he was assaulted by a fellow inmate.
Other successful compensation claims at the Victorian category B jail included £6,623 for a 'slip, trip or fall', £5,000 for a "sports injury" and £9,000 for a mysterious 'miscellaneous injury', the Echo reported.
The figures from the Ministry of Justice showed that about £60,000 in total has been paid out to 14 inmates at five prisons in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
This included the low-security Camp Hill Prison on the Isle of Wight, where an inmate received £4,500 after being assaulted by a member of staff and another was given £4,000 for unlawful detention.
The payments were criticised by campaign group the Taxpayers' Alliance.
Spokesman Mark Wallace said in a statement: 'It's disgusting that law-abiding taxpayers have to stump up compensation because drug addicts weren't allowed to keep taking drugs in prison.
'It's extremely worrying that the compensation culture has grown so much and particularly that prisoners have obviously realised that this is an easy way to make a quick buck.
'It is also extremely unfair that if you are the victim of crime you are likely to get minimal victim compensation, if any, but it appears criminals are increasingly turning a tidy profit from the system.'
A Prison Service spokesman said: 'We successfully defend the majority of contested claims. We make payments only when we are instructed to do so by the courts or where strong legal advice suggests that a settlement will save public money.
'Each compensation claim received by the Prison Service is treated on its individual merits. Legal advice is sought and, on the basis of that advice, a decision is made on whether or not the claim should be defended.
'We cannot therefore comment on individual cases or the reasons that they were settled, as the terms of each settlement vary and may be subject to confidentiality clauses.'
dailymail.co.uk |
