Unlock: Rehabilitation is vital

Prisoners must not be forced to undergo a "civic death" while in jail, argued Bobby Cummines, chief executive of Unlock, the national association of ex-offenders.

The aim of the prison service must be to release ex-offenders to lead law-abiding lives in the community, he said, but this could not be done by taking their vote away.

This week the European Court of Human Rights ruled that barring prisoners from voting violated their human rights, and Mr Cummines, who has long been calling for a review of the law, welcomed the judgment.

"If we want prison populations to go down and crime on the street to be reduced, prisons must be used as a place for rehabilitation where prisoners are trained to be decent citizens, and that means ensuring that they know they are very much alive to society, this means equal voting rights."