Life in 3D

news from WTF, over?!?!

“Drug addicted prisoners receive compensation for being forced to go cold turkey”

Yep, that’s the headline from the Daily Mail. Those poor incarcerated criminals were FORCED to get off drugs while they were in jail. How DARE the British government stop them from using illegal drugs while they are locked up!! This is a travesty of the highest order; these people have RIGHTS I say!

How dare the British government force these poor, poor prisoners off of drugs while they are in jail.  How dare the system actually do something like making people stop their illegal activities and maybe even clean themselves up a bit.  That is just going TOO FAR!  These prisoners should just be allowed to go through the revolving door that is the symbol of the Western worlds prison system.

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.

All I want to know is how is it a ‘human right’ to use what is an illegal substance? So does this mean that, according to the judge, use of an illegal drug is not actually illegal and is in fact a human right? Are the authorities in England going to be bringing drugs to the prisoners in their jails and so they will have prison guards for mules?

If you’re in jail in England and decide you want to take up drug use, will they have to provide the drugs for you as well as a safe environment to use them in? What about munchies for once you come down, will those be provided as well? I’ve never used drugs, but I understand that the munchies that come after a high can totally suck.

Seriously, this is the stupidest crap I have ever heard of. So now, according to this judge, the prisoners should be allowed to use drugs while they are in jail. Yes, I understand that ‘substitute substances’ is code for the legal version of heroine that is no better that the original version and to me I think that maybe making them go cold turkey is the best way to get them off of it. The jail should make sure they get whatever medical treatment they need to make their way through the withdrawal symptoms but I see no reason that they should be forced to let someone continue the illegal activities that most likely had a part in landing them in jail in the first place.

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.

So, I guess they just decided that they couldn’t win a fight where their defense could be “Heroine usage is a crime so why should we let them use heroine in prison?” Yea, what a tough position to hold onto. Did anyone die from their forced cold turkey cleanup? Then what is the problem?

This is what happens when the attitude of our societies and legal system decide that individual rights trump the rights of the society that the individual lives in. There was a time when prison was a place that people didn’t want to be because it sucked so much that the average citizen, and many criminals, were afraid of going to jail.   Now we give them cable TV, free education, and – in England at least – drugs it seems.

Yep, the criminals have more rights that you do.