Prisoners Receiving Millions in Compensation for "Feeling Blue"

NCD News: Prisoners Receiving Millions in Compensation for "Feeling Blue" - 27.11.09

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Prisoners Receiving Millions in Compensation for "Feeling Blue": Any reasonable person might expect that once someone has been tried and convicted of a crime, they would do their time and then re-enter society. During their time in prison it might be expected that they wouldn't be able to drain the taxpayer of millions of pounds in compensation payments, considering that the legal system used and the subsequent looking after them in prison already costs us billions. Yet they do -- and at an alarming rate.

Payments of more than £4m were made in the past year, which is more than double what was paid in the previous year. The Head of the Prison Service's litigation unit Derek Ramsden, spoke to The Times where he disclosed that more than 1000 cases are being brought again the prison service each year and that this figure is steadily increasing.

The Scottish government hasn't been much better. Due to a loophole in legislation they are allowing thousands of prisoners to sue for compensation for being forced to clean ("slop out") toilets while in prison during the period of time up to 2005 when the practise was discontinued. 3,700 prisoners have already received an average of £2500 each and the prison service has set aside an incredible £67m to fund future claims. The loophole has now been closed, but the damage is done.

One prisoner has received an estimated £2.8m after he failed to commit suicide and is understood to need round the clock care. As the payment was made in an out of court settlement the details are not fully known, but it is the largest payment made in one of these cases.

Other inmates appear to be simply taking the system for all they can get and are claiming breaches of their human rights. £11,400 was paid to 3 inmates of Winchester prison after it was ruled that their human rights were breached when they were refused narcotics in prison - forcing them to endure going "cold turkey". To put that in to perspective, £11,000 is roughly the payment a family receives from the government when a relative has been murdered.

A further human rights complaint was made by Sammy Ralston, Ricardo Blanco and Andrew Somerville when they alleged that being put into solitary confinement caused them feelings of inferiority and anguish, causing depression. Ralston even claimed his spiritual needs were prejudiced as he was not able to attend church. Somerville had been jailed for shooting another man in the head after kidnapping him and his girlfriend and keeping them captive for 5 hours. Blanco murdered a drug courier and Ralston was convicted of armed robbery after a string of other convictions. Strange that people able to commit these types of crimes might be so badly affected by being confined to a cell - and if being kept from your church is something that troubles you, killing someone might be a past-time you should avoid.

Some cases are more complex, such as where the prisoner was not meant to be there. Ellis Sherwood, who was wrongly convicted of murder and served 11 years in jail before being freed, has claimed that the drugs he took during his time in prison caused him to suffer a stroke once he was out. He has received £1.4m in compensation.

In some cases it seems that the Government is building a rod for its own back and allowing compensation claims to be paid, either through their own actions or by holes in legislation. More than £5m has been paid out to cover the expenses of prisoners who were released from jail early as part of the Governments end-of-custody license. The early release scheme was put in place to alleviate cell shortages.

So what is the government doing about these clear wastes of public money? In July of this year Jack Straw announced proposals to crack down on nuisance claims. The measures aim to remove access to advice and assistance on prison treatment from the Criminal Defence Service. The prison internal complaints procedures will need to be utilised before any further action can be taken. The aim is to also to prevent exploitation of the legal aid service.

New laws are also planned to allow the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority to pursue offenders to recover funds, including any compensation payments they may receive while in prison. The CICA currently do not allow criminals to claim any compensation from them according to a sliding scale of criminal activity. The length of sentence is used to allocate points which amount to the percentage of compensation they can receive. They also take into account the amount of public funds already allocated to that person in court time and legal aid.

The proposed legislation may well make inmates think twice before bring a case for compensation. But with a general culture, both in and out of prison, leaning towards compensation for all things it seems unlikely that the dregs of our society are going to think twice about the effect their actions have on the rest of us ... and by "dregs", we mean the fee-chasing solicitors that exploit the law and justice system to provide cash for criminals. †