Don't deny justice to prisoners
Jack Straw plans to cut 'nuisance' legal claims by prisoners. But doing so risks a return to the bad old days of rooftop protest
Yesterday the Ministry of Justice website announced "Jack Straw cracks down on trivial prisoner legal claims".
Given that Straw is the other party in legal proceedings brought by prisoners against the authorities, it is an abuse of process for the defendant to judge such claims as trivial. There is already in place a mechanism operated by the Legal Services Commission (LSC) called the merits test, to determine whether a case is too trivial to pursue by a grant of legal aid, and of course there is the judge, who can dismiss a case deemed too trivial.
First published in the Guardian online Commentisfree
UPDATE: Article now top 5 places in Google Search Don't deny justice to prisoners
4 comments:
Good article over on Cif, shame that the usual nutters are out in force.
BB: Thanks. Unfortunately, those are the ones which Jack Straw takes notice of!
Too true John, the sooner inmates get the vote the sooner we might have a more balanced approach to our penal system.
BB: I think the vote is crucial to get MPs to give prisoners a voice in Parliament. It is the only way to get the will of Parliament necessary for prison reform.
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