MtheGM, What you seem to be saying is that allowing severely mentally ill people (whether inmates of prisons or not) to vote is absurd. I quite agree. But I still maintain that those who are have the mental capability should not be disenfranchised as an additional punishment to their loss of liberty. Especially as the Government is so unclear about the aims of the Penal System. I can assure Guest no.6 that in the eight British prisons I visited, there was a very large number of mentally ill men. On Visits in Parkhurst, several prisoners were attended by a uniformed nurse carrying a medical bag in which was always kept injections to quickly calm them down if they became violent. Suicides in eg Norwich Prison when I visited there were so common that an Inquiry was set up. Self-harm is an everyday occurrence. In general, these people are not transferred to a prison for the mentally ill. Brian May, are you proposing that inmates should NOT be warm, fed, clothed etc? If so, I imagine that you would prefer their punishment to be more severe and rigorous than it is at present. What would be the advantages of this? (I ask this in all sincerity, as I have never fully decided what we should do with offenders, I find the whole problem too complex to solve.)