LONDON: Almost 200 drug-addicted convicts will share an astonishing compensation payout of almost £700,000 after the government caved in to claims that stopping their use of drugs breached their human rights. The settlement - worth a staggering £3,500 each - provoked fury.

Once legal fees are added to the payout, rubber-stamped at the High Court yesterday, the total bill to the taxpayer is likely to smash through the £1mn barrier.

The Home Office said it had "reluctantly" agreed to pay up to minimise costs to the public. If the case had reached court, the inmates could have been granted even more cash, officials said.

Shadow home secretary David Davis said: "In the light of this John Reid must now explain to the public why exactly he collapsed in the face of pressure.

"Proper, effective and sustained rehabilitation programmes are vital to ensure that prisons have a purpose and can actually help prepare offenders for a life free of crime and the misery of drugs.

"If the government continues to fold in this way the drug situation will only deteriorate. The home secretary must explain to the public why he is prepared to waste so much taxpayers’ money and sacrifice such a worthy cause."

The compensation scandal centres on 198 prisoners who were receiving treatment to help them kick hard drug addictions.

They had been receiving drugs such as methadone, paid for by the government. But a decision was taken by the prison service that - rather than continue to be given drugs - they should be made to go through "cold turkey" detox instead.

The criminals - funded by legal aid - argued this was unlawful under Labour’s Human Rights Act and should count as "torture" or "degrading treatment".

Even though all the drugs the offenders were addicted to were illegal, they argued that the prison system had no right to make them stop, or to put them through detox programmes without their consent. – London Evening Standard