ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the more specific issue of prisoners' rights. These rights mean 'all things to all persons' is not for a moment denied. Indeed the statement attests to the rhetorical power of 'rights', and arguably emphasizes the political advantages of joining rather than ignoring the debate. In the UK imprisonment formally constitutes the law's most severe penalty. Individuals who breach the fundamental tenets of the criminal law are removed from the rest of society, deprived of their freedom of movement, and subjected to numerous further constraints frequently amounting to an alteration in their legally recognized rights and liberties. Although Lord Wilberforce's statement in Raymond v. Honey, that a prisoner 'retains all civil rights which are not taken away expressly or by necessary implication', appears to accord with the above prescription, in practice, any resemblance between the position as described by Wilberforce and the ideal is fairly superficial.
