A High Court judge has approved damages payments totalling £750,000 for 197 prisoners who were forced to stop taking drugs in jail.

Mr Justice Langstaff, sitting in London, rubber-stamped the Government's decision to make payments.

The Home Office settled a -*test*-('") case involving six convicted men out of court to avoid further costs.

According to lawyers, all 197 can now expect to receive over £3,750 each. All have agreed to the settlement, with the exception of two prisoners who still have to make their decision.

In court, Richard Hermer, appearing for the six -*test*-('") case inmates, said the Home Office had now admitted its policy on drug-dependent prisoners was unlawful and "inevitably means that such a policy must be changed with immediate effect".

Mr Hermer told the judge the -*test*-('") cases had been brought "upon the long recognised principle that the only thing prisoners lose upon passing through prison gates is their liberty".

He stressed it was in essence "a medical negligence claim - not a human rights claim" which identified "the minimum standard of treatment deemed reasonable to treat individuals with drug dependency problems".

The prisoners involved alleged that the Prison Service "wholly failed to provide this," said Mr Hermer.

"In accepting liability for negligence, and indeed assault, the Prison Service have accepted that they failed to provide this minimum standard."

Each claimant would now receive compensation to reflect the fact that they were treated unlawfully "as a direct result of which they endured pain and suffering that the Prison Service knew could have been avoided if a more reasonable treatment regime was provided."

As The Sun once printed 'Would the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights'.

You're always welcome here Dick.

Believe me it's getting very tempting

Oh dear oh dear oh dear, again just goes to show that our judges dead set have no idea on what happens in real life.

Dick don't come here mate, same type of decisions daily. But the weather is better

It's ridiculous to pay someone who was previously breaking the law for the fact that they were forced to become a law abiding citizen

MADNESS!!