Why Are Prisoners Allowed To Marry Anyway?

[ToraToraTora]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64987928
...just block the lot and be done with it.

[youngmafbog]

Who knows, too many woke do-gooders.

This is what prison should be like: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-64770716

[choux]

While I often think prisons are too "soft" that is abhorrent and cannot be right.

[barry1010]

Prisoners have been allowed to request permission to marry since 1949. It's up to the prison governor, it's not an automatic right

[Old_Geezer]

A pointless process anyway, so why stop it, save for spite ?

Just sort out the legal position and stop wasting public money on irrelevances.

[barry1010]

Not necessarily pointless, OG.

[youngmafbog]

//that is abhorrent and cannot be right.//

So was what they did to their victims.

[ToraToraTora]

They ain't in the slammer for missionary work. Part of the punishment is the loss of privileges that free people have.

[youngmafbog]

Absolutely TTT.

Sentences should be tougher and much longer.

[fender62]

whats the point, and no conjugal visits, i see the point on no conjugal visits, if your in for life, child will never really know you, bit that does not seem to matter to some these days, say your in for erm 20yrs
you get married withing your first year in prison, does inmate think other half is going to stick around at home twiddling there thumbs.

[barry1010]

The UK does not have conjugal visits. There are many reasons why it could be beneficial to the person on the outside to marry a prisoner especially if they were in a long relationship before prison

[Untitled]

it depends whether or not you think the prison system is there to punish or to rehabilitate… at the moment ours tries both badly and succeeds at neither which is incoherent… the prison system like many other essential areas of public service been severely cut for ideological reasons by the Tories and struggles to contain or manage its existing population

the el salvador case has already turned up many people who have been falsely imprisoned… i understand it pops a cork for some people to see images of other people brutalised and dehumanised but people should not be imprisoned en masse without a fair trial or else we’re in stalin territory

[bazwillrun]

be a breach of their 'ooman rights no doubt...you can bet there'd be leftie lawyers and groups all over it if they were perish the thought denied their rights in any way or form

[fitdarren]

What I can't understand is why anybody would want to marry that Bellfield monster - the mind absolutely boggles!! They shouldn't be allowed to marry, ever. They are in prison to pay the price for their crimes, but too many do-gooders out there trying to make life easier for them.

[roadman]

prisoners have assets and children and other life factors that marriage can help

[Gromit]

Ignoring the obvious why would any sane woman want to marry a disgusting murderer like Bedingfield.

If he and some deluded attention seeking idiot woman want to marry, then there is not any law forbidding it.

Just let the idiots get on with it.

[andy-hughes]

In general terms, there are legal benefits for the spouses and children of prisoners who are not the subject of the punishment, and should not be adversely affected for something they have not done.

In terms of 'celebrity' murderers with no chance of parole, the attraction is obviously not based on the standard relationship factors that lead to marriage.

I believe there is a powerful attraction for some inadequate women who struggle to form and maintain relationships, to be linked to a man with whom their relationship can be conducted largely on their terms.

They know exactly where he is every second of the day and night, he cannot cheat on them, run away from them, or create a similar bond with any other woman.

In order for a man to be in that position, he has to have committed a crime deemed serious enough that he will never be released, but for some women, his personal history makes the security of their relationship worth accepting what he has done.

Since, by definition, these women are not conducting anything approaching a normal relationship, it should be relatively easy for them to believe their fixation's protestations of innocence, and see him as a heroic figure cheated of his liberty by a cruel society that has treated him badly, probably in much the same way as they see themselves, as outsiders and victims.

But I could not agree that the sins of the few, like Belfield, should be used to punish the few more, with innocent people being affected by such a draconian measure.