Personally I feel that withholding voting rights should be PART of the punishment.

If a criminal makes a choice to disregard the laws of society, then that society should make a choice to disregard the rights of said individual. God almighty, they are getting three meals a day, are warm, clothed and get medical attention when they need it. Not many pensioners can say that - especially this winter.

Inordinate amounts of resource are ploughed into rehabilitation of offenders, recidivism is still very high and precious little regard is paid to the victims and with the latest cuts, that's going to get worse.

Once more we have 'do-gooders' to thank for giving the dysfunctional elements more rights than we common-or-garden taxpayers.

Thanks . . .