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One of Damilola Taylor's killers was back behind bars today - only 16 days after being released from jail. Ricky Preddie (pictured left) was recalled to prison last night after breaching the terms of his parole
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Convicts 'should be allowed IVF treatment while in jail'
Last updated at 00:07am on 15.01.08Prisoners should be allowed conjugal visits and IVF treatment to help them have children while behind bars, a new report claims.
Academics claim that helping prisoners to become parents during their sentences will assist their rehabilitation, as well as respecting their human rights - and those of their partners - to raise a family.
The call follows a landmark legal defeat for the Government last month in which the European Court of Human Rights ruled that it was unlawful to stop jailed murderer Kirk Dickson donating sperm for his wife to use in IVF treatment as it breached their right to marry and raise a family.
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Unacceptable: The ruling from the EU Court of Human Rights permitting jailed murderer, Kirk Dickson, and his wife Lorraine to have IVF treatment has prompted other prisoners to look for the same rights as part of their rehabilitation
The latest study by researchers at De Montfort University in Leicester will add to the growing pressure on the Ministry of Justice to abandon its ban prohibiting IVF or conjugal visits for inmates in England and Wales, which many now see as unsustainable.
A ministry spokesman confirmed that the IVF ban is "under review" in the wake of the Dickson judgement, and insiders admit the ban is unsustainable.
But officials said the department would resist pressure to introduce conjugal visits - even though they are common in the U.S. and several European states, where inmates are allowed to have sex with visiting spouses or partners.
According to Prison Service the introduction of IVF in jails - dubbed "FedEx Sex" in the United States - could not legally be restricted to male prisoners donating sperm, but female inmates would also have to be allowed access to test-tube treatment to help them become pregnant.
Victoria Knight, a researcher at De Montfort University, said: "Inmates see a child and their role as a parent as a means of helping to rehabilitate and keep them on the straight and narrow.
"It is a subject which has been avoided as it challenges what the purpose of prison is.
"Obviously conjugal visits aren't permitted in this country, whereas in Europe they are widely accepted."
Fellow author Nicky Hudson said research had showed that prisoners were concerned that age could stop them or their partners from having children by they time they are released.
But she conceded: "We are in a very punitive society and giving prisoners rights doesn't seem to fit with that."
Family rights campaigner Helena Hayward of Family and Youth Concern said it was wrong to put the rights of prisoners above the needs of their potential children.
"Playing around with children's lives is unacceptable," she said.
"We seem to have forgotten that offenders are in prison because they have violated society's law.
"While rehabilitation is important, using children in the process is highly irresponsible.
"Innocent children who would have no say about their participation in such an 'experiment' would risk becoming fatherless if it failed.
"Children need two parents who are able to play an active part in their upbringing - and they should both be positive role models."
Last month senior judges in Strasbourg ruled that Kirk Dickson, 35 - serving 15 years for kicking a man to death in a row over a packet of cigarettes - should be allowed to donate sperm for IVF treatment on his wife Lorraine, 49, whom he met through a prison penpal network in 1999 and married while she was serving time for benefits fraud.
The couple argued she would be too old to have his baby by the time he is released, next year at the earliest.
They spent years - and more than £20,000 of taxpayers money - fighting through the British courts and initially lost at the European Court of Human Rights, but a month ago the court's Grand Chamber finally ruled in their favour.
The judgement has far-reaching implications for Government policy, although Dickson himself has been moved to an open prison where he is allowed home visits.
A Prison Service spokeswoman said: "In the light of a recent judgement, the policy on prisoners' access to artificial insemination facilities is currently under review.
"Conjugal visits are not permitted in any prison in England and Wales."
Conjugal visits are common in France, Spain, Russia, Canada and parts of the United States. California recently introduced same-sex conjugal visits in response to new anti-discrimination laws
Reader views (18)
i think its a great idear,people deserve second chances,everyone makes mistakes,im sure most of u write in on here have done,just not been caught.as long as its dun properly,with the right prisoners then its a way forward.at least there not child fidlers coming out n re ofending.
- Rash, london england, 22/03/2010 20:39
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It beggars belief that IVF can be considered for people who are taken out of society because they are deemed unfit by our courts. Law abiding people paying for it through tax - disgusting!
- Matt Smith, Lymington, UK, 15/01/2008 09:02
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These people give up their "human rights" when they deprive others of theirs - i.e. their human right not to be burgled, murdered, assaulted etc.
- Shirley, London, 14/01/2008 22:11
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I'm sorry but if you're in prison it's because you've violated someone else's human rights and part of the punishment is to have your own human rights restricted. If that means you or your partner can't have kids, tough - you should have thought about that before you offended.
- Claire, London, 14/01/2008 19:47
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So as well as importing scallywags who we don't throw out when they break the law, we now intend to help the indigenous ones already locked up here to breed! Where do we find such "gifted" academics?
- Steve, Hereford, 14/01/2008 16:48
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No doubt any offspring will bump up the benefits of the partner giving birth, though it appears that Mrs Dickson is already well-versed in upping those!
- Paul, London, 14/01/2008 14:51
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I am amazed that this was even thought of as a solution to rehabilitating criminals, much less ruled on by European Courts!
I guess all the hard working law abiding couples who cannot afford IVF treatment should go murder someone so that they can conceive, then when they get out the council will give them accomodation rent free!
- Melissa, London, 14/01/2008 14:25
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Doesn't feel like April the 1st or does it?
- John., Staffordshire, 14/01/2008 13:21
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This is stupid. You might be in jail for abusing or killing a child, but your human rights are being abused because you can't then produce a child. What if you then offend again against that child. If you want to be a good parent and have the ability to have children then stay out of jail in the first place. It is time Britain got serious about crime, a crime that would get you a 50-100 year sentence in the States will get you less than 10 years in Britain. Remove the "I want to be a good parent" by locking them up for the rest of their natural lives, that is the only way Britain is going to be a country that ex-pats like me would with to return to.
- Graeme Brown, Austin, USA, 14/01/2008 11:56
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As if Mondays weren't bad enough already without reading this sort of ridiculous idea. And I hope Mrs Dickson is paying for her own IVF ...
- Marianne, SW France, 14/01/2008 11:35
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And what if they are given the right to be a parent these people suddenly turn out not to "be on the straight and narrow" as hoped by this researcher? And what about the costs for IVF treatment? This is ridiculous. I agree with Adam from Harrow. Once you land in prison you just are not free to do as you please.
- Katrina, Berlin, Germany, 14/01/2008 10:55
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Unbelieveable! The commodification of human life knows no bounds! A child can now be a means of rehabilitating offenders? It would appear that the welfare of the child is no longer paramount in this "I want one of those" society that we live in.
- Julia, London, 14/01/2008 10:46
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That is absolutely ridiculous. Can only agree with Adam from Harrow. The very fact that you are in prison precludes certain civil rights. Why not go to court and say your right to move around freely is being violated?
- Delphine, Oxford, 14/01/2008 10:37
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Typical, put the rights of all the wrongdoers in front of the victim and their families. No should be the answer to this very simple question.
Don't do the crime if you cant do the time - which also includes IVF.
- Jen, London, 14/01/2008 09:32
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These poor murderers they have such a hard life really. I am sure the rights of any children to be simply do not feature in this. Nothing like having the stigma of being the child of a notorious murderer.
Judges and academics the two groups of people who are out of touch with reality.
- Frank, Home Counties, England, 14/01/2008 09:08
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If you commit a crime that results in a custodial sentence, then by that very definition you will be denied the right to a normal free and self determining life. You can't work, you can't have congugal rights, you are not free to do as you please. Therefore you should also not have any right to start a family even if it is by IVF.
- Adam, Harrow, UK, 14/01/2008 08:35
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Well I guess it is a bit tough on a wife left on the outside who will lose the chance to have children because of her husband's failings - but hey, life's tough! And this woman isn't in that category, having met him through a prisoner pen-pal scheme when she herself was in prison for benefit fraud. She knew what the deal was when she married him. It's also not like she'll never have the chance to be a mother, she has 3 children from her first marriage.
The 'right' to raise a family is surely meant to prevent ethnic cleansing: if it covers this as well it must be sloppily worded. Kirk Dickson should have thought things through before he kicked to death in the street a manbwho refused to give him a cigarette: the parents of his victim must be particularly appalled that he now wants the 'right' to be a parent himself. The money spent on his legal aid should have gone to his victim's family.
- Roz, Chamonix, France, 14/01/2008 08:04
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Academics and common sense, is there a link I don't think so. By being a criminal you should immediately forfeit your human rights and any other associated freedoms enjoyed by law abiding citizens.
- Fly, London, 14/01/2008 07:24
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