DRUG addicted prisoners made to go cold turkey at a Hampshire prison have been paid thousands of pounds in compensation, a Daily Echo investigation has revealed.

More than £11,400 was paid out to three criminals at Winchester Prison after a court ruled that it was a breach of their human rights to deny them heroin and other opiates to treat their addiction.

The sum given to the addicts was just a part of the £50,000 paid out with taxpayers’ money in just one year to seven inmates at the prison.

Tax campaigners slammed the payouts as “disgusting”, while a leading MP said some prisoners were cashing in on Britain’s compensation culture.

A Freedom of Information request also uncovered that one prisoner was handed £14,250 after being assaulted by a fellow convict.

Other successful compensation claims at Winchester Prison included £6,623 for a “slip, trip or fall”, £5,000 for a “sports injury” and £9,000 for a mysterious “miscellaneous injury”.

Taxpayers’ Alliance spokesman Mark Wallace said: “It’s disgusting that law-abiding taxpayers have to stump up compensation because drug addicts weren’t allowed to keep taking drugs in prison.

“It’s extremely worrying that the compensation culture has grown so much and particularly that prisoners have obviously realised that this is an easy way to make a quick buck.

“It is also extremely unfair that if you are the victim of crime you are likely to get minimal victim compensation, if any, but it appears criminals are increasingly turning a tidy profit from the system.”

The figures were released this week after the Ministry of Justice took almost nine months to respond to a FOI request submitted by the Daily Echo.

It showed that at the five prisons across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, 14 inmates received a total of £60,549 in compensation from the Prison Service in 2006/07.

This was an increase of almost 1,200 per cent on two years earlier when just three prisoners were given £4,675.

At the low-security Camp Hill Prison, on the Isle of Wight, an inmate successfully claimed £4,500 after being assaulted by a member of staff and another was given £4,000 for unlawful detention.

A Prison Service spokeswoman said it successfully defend the majority of contested claims.

“We make payments only when we are instructed to do so by the courts or where strong legal advice suggests that a settlement will save public money,” she said.

Albany Prison for male sex offenders has the most widespread compensation culture, with inmates submitting 69 claims in 2006/07. Of these, just two resulted in payouts.

The next highest was at Parkhurst (27 claims), Winchester (8), Camp Hill (4) and Kingston (3).

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman and Eastleigh MP Chris Huhne said people who suffer injury at the hands of the state, whether incarcerated or not, should be compensated, but the claims must always be valid and the payout proportionate.

The Eastleigh MP added: “Some of these claims seem to be little more than a shameless cashing in on this country’s compensation culture.”

The drug addict claims stem from a 2006 High Court case in which a judge approved damages where heroin and other opiates were withdrawn, after ruling it amounted to a breach of their human rights.

Many of the prisoners were receiving methadone treatment before they entered prison, but were forced to go cold turkey on the inside.

Martin Barnes, chief executive of the charity DrugScope, said: “Prisoners are entitled to the same standard of health care that they would receive in the community; the medical care received by claimants under the original action had fallen well below acceptable standards. By conceding the legal action, the Home Office accepted full liability in all cases.

“It is clear that short, sharp, enforced detoxification is still the experience for many entering prison, even for those who were in receipt of a prescribed substitute drug such as methadone prior to custody.”

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