Hello!
I know its been a while but we have been extremely busy and I haven’t even had one afternoon to research and write the fabulously fantastic blog I know you have all grown to love!
Todays blog post entitled ‘compensation’ is about just that, I wanted to blog about compensation claims made by prisoners some of which have been awarded a pay out where as others declined.
The thing is I am all for prisoners being treated fairly and when compensation is deemed an appropriate settlement then it shouldn’t matter weather the claimant is a prisoner or not,
HOWEVER,
in some of the cases I have come across during my research for this blog I must admit I do feel that the prisoners are taking things a bit too far and it is not doing them as a ‘community’ any favours in the eyes of the general public that are struggling to make ends meet.
I mean we get comments on twitter and Facebook almost daily about how prisoners should be locked up and left to rot, that they should not get cheaper calls or any privileges and we always respond with the same thought process, that prison is about rehabilitation NOT just punishment so maintaining family ties and having access to education ect is vital for the system to work.
It does however present a rather difficult argument when prisoners seem to be able to claim compensation for lost milk tokens and for not receiving an apology.
I mean can you imagine what response you or I would get if we filled court papers out for compensation if the lady in Tesco that bumped into you whilst her mind was fixed on ticking off all the items on her shopping list failed to apologise?
A prisoner in HMP Frankland prison received £100 in compensation because his newspaper was late being delivered, £100! come on! can you imagine what response you or i would get if we went down to our local paper shop and they hadn’t received their newspaper delivery on time, would you apply for compensation? I realise that a newspaper is much more important to a prisoner as their routine will be somewhat disrupted if it isn’t received but £100 in compensation? really!?
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/frankland-jail-prisoner-paid-compensation-1730235
But wait, what if…
What if the courts/prison service are partially to blame?
hear me out….
By issuing these compensation ‘victories’ to the prisoners they are sending a message to other prisoners that should they get bored (which is not hard now they are not even allowed books sent in!) write a letter and you could get some compensation!
Whilst on the other hand the courts are also demonising prisoners in the public eye so that support when it comes to prisoner votes and the book ban for example become much harder to obtain from the general public as these stories are thrust in their faces by mainstream media!
Here is an interesting link to 5 of the most outrageous compensation claims as reported by the Daily Mirror.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/five-outrageous-prisoner-compensation-claims-3469778
Let us know what you think to the whole compensation topic by leaving a comment below or see what your friends on Facebook and followers on twitter think by sharing this blog post with them.
As always this blog represents my personal opinions and whether you agree or disagree you cant argue that my opinion is what you are reading this blog for,
Please do your best to stay safe
x Claire x
