To Be in Prison So Long, It's Difficult to Remember Exactly What You Did to Get There. Jack Henry Abbott

Life doesn’talways mean ‘life’ when it comes to prison sentences, it can mean 25 years, butoften less. However, when life does actually mean life (until death) is it a violationof prisoners human rights OR are rights relinquished in prison? This is (oneof many) topics of discussion in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) at the moment, see here.Killer Jeremy Bamber and two other convicted murderers have claimed that “whole-lifetariffs condemning them to die in jail amount to ‘inhuman or degradingtreatment’ and that their sentences should be open to regular review.” However,one could argue that someone who kills 5 people in cold blood should never beallowed out of prison for the safety of the public. Indeed, his co-claimantDouglas Vinter was released from prison after serving 9 years for murder andthree years later killed his wife. His case must be proof that convictedmurders, particularly those who continue their reign of violence, should not beallowed back into the public domain.Prisoner’s rightsare always a contentious subject, the right to vote being one of the mostdebated, see The Jailhouse Lawyer’s Blog for some interesting discussions here.Only recently has the ECHR ruled that by blanket banning prisoners from votingis a violation of one of our fundamental human rights. Indeed, if human rights are universal should there be any restriction on whocan enjoy them? Basically, if prisoners are human (which, for the sake of argument,lets agree they are) then they are entitled to human rights. Some argue thatthe incarceration of prisoners is their punishment and no other rights shouldbe taken away from them, but who can say that the right to liberty (Article 5 ofthe ECHR) can be taken away from prisoners but not the right to vote (Article 3).Furthermore, who can say that being incarcerated in a British prison can bereferred to as ‘inhumane or degrading treatment’? Discuss..