Ben Cunningham
What freedoms should prisoners have?
YES
People have rights. Prisoners are people. Therefore, it is obvious that people should have their Human Rights respected. Admittedly, they’ve made mistakes but as the saying goes ‘It’s not how hard you fall but how fast you get back up!’ It is paramount that we help them get back up, and this helping hand can come in the form of maintaining rights. A key aspect of this argument is also remembering that not all prisoners in our jails are murderers, rapists or terrorists. Most people are only serving short sentences so they are coming back to society. Don't you think that they are more likely to resent the society they return to if their rights are infringed while incarcerated? This resentment would surely lead to relapse.
NO
People have rights. Prisoners are people but every person is different. These ‘people’ have no respect for law and so we should have no respect for their rights. In many cases the prisoners in question have violated someone else’s rights and therefore require equal treatment. The saying ‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’ rings true here. Prison must serve a purpose of making sure people are afraid to commit crime. The punishment should act as a deterrence, by ensuring the only way one can keep their rights is by keeping out of jail. Don’t you think that they are more like to commit MORE crime than before if we don’t take away some of their rights in detention?
Prisoners are prisoners. In the eyes of the law they are all equal albeit only to each other and it’s inevitable that they will all be treated the same regardless of crime committed. It is how we treat them that will determine the safety of our society. One cannot pick and choose who has what rights. They are Human rights and we are all human.
On 22 July 2011 Anders Behring Breivik killed eight people by detonating a van bomb in Oslo, then shot dead 69 participants of a Workers' Youth League summer camp on the island of Utøya. In August 2012 he was convicted of mass murder, causing a fatal explosion, and terrorism. Should this man have the same rights as you and I while serving his sentence?
Jamie Harron, a 27-year-old electrician from Britain, is facing a possible three-year jail sentence in Dubai over claims that he touched a man on the hip in a bar. In the meantime, he has been sentenced to a month in jail for making a rude gesture and drinking alcohol. Should this man have the same rights as you and I while serving his sentence?
Both men are prisoners… What rights should they have?