I say let them have the pay increase, but make them buy their food and other essentials from the earnings, especially in YOIs. One of the biggest reasons for being there is a refusal to accept responsibility for themselves. If they learn how that would be the best rehabilitation training ever.

KR, Stockport,

Prisoners get paid?? This is a late April Fool right?

Katie Fraser, London,

Is this to bring them in line with the minimum wage? Prisioners should do more to earn their keep.

steve tea, manchester, cheshire

Dear Editor,

To make this announcement on prisoners income the day before it was due to rise and before local elections are held for work undertaken as part of rehabilitation smacks of mean cynical opportunism. Pisons numbers are at a record high, numbers of suicides rocketing, what price reform?

mike guilfoyle, London, England

G`ment agenda is supposed to be to rehabilitate prisoners and reduce reoffending, Low self esteem and sense purpose is a common theme amongst prisoners, surely we should support a tunaround in this, and paying a reasonable wage for a good days work weould go towards this aim.

sarah Tate, London, uk

Maybe theres a glimmer of hope that Brown has been embarrassed to hell and back at last !!!!

Mike, Alicante, Spain

Spin.

Mike L, Chippenham, Wilts

Why should they have pay to "rise" when in prison. They are GUILTY OF OFFENCES agianst their victims WHO GET NOTHING.

Indeed, if the victims try to improve security there is the VAT charge.

Crime does not pay. IT CERTAINLY DOES FOR GOVERNMENT

M. Cawdery, Portadown, Co. UK, EU.

We pay to keep them in jail and we're paying them as well???? Prisoners should doing 12 hours or more a day unpaid hard labour. This country is nuts.

Kate, Newcastle, England

I've never understood why prisoners should get a salary. If that is so, then they must also pay for their 'full-board' accommodation!

MJ, Lisbon,

great.thats really going to endear the grinning bear to the voters,lets show em we are tough boys,we will hit em where it really hurts ,in their pockets,new slogan-tough on prisoners,weak on the causes of prisoners.

david devonport, Great Yarmouth, UK

Are we trying to rehabilitate prisoners? If we are they should work hard and receive pay because that is what we do in the community! We are supposed to be a civilised society that works on rehabilitation/prevention - we should be encouraging this -even if it is their own fault they are inside

Fred, London,

Surely a large proportion of their earnings(if not all) should be required to pay for their upkeep ! Instead of innocent taxpayers paying for their crimes .

Benzo, Nr Chelmsford,

Do Amorak have a monopoly over the sale of toiletries and confectioneries to the whole prison market? Or are these items sold straight to the prisons who sell them on to inmates? If the latter is the case then why pay prisoners in "money" at all when its really a credit system.

Jamie Liddle, London, UK

Anyone else feel that the real power in this country now lies with newspaper editors and proprietors? You can imagine the screaming pre-election headlines twisting the well overdue, pathetically modest, pay increase into a massive scandal. I can't blame the PM, but I find it so depressing.

Richard Winter, Surrey,

Prisons are for people who have in some shape or capacity corrupted the state and/or society. Is it correct that they should be getting more tax-payer's money other than the thousands-per-prisonner-per-year we already spend on them?

Make them work for nothing, repying instead of earning!

Paul Flannery, Glasgow,

Let's remember that all the people serving sentences are volunteers. They will have been through numerous interventions of the legal system prior to finally getting a custodial sentence. I have no sympathy, if prisonis so awful why do they keep volunteering.

Don, Leeds, Yorks

Prisoners are fed and housed at taxpayer expense. When my children were small an occasional punishment was the cessation of pocket money. They are now responsible adults aware of the consequences of their actions.

Louise, Harwich, England

Local elections - this was in the nick of time !

wills, soton, uk

Prisoners have to be given money so that they can make phone calls then some organisation can profit from that. Dont you lot get it ? The criminal justice system is a business like all others and it employs hundreds of thousands of Police Judges Lawyers Insurance Brokers. It wont STOP.

Mark, Gateshead, UK

I'm surprised prisoners can buy razor blades. Safe as they may be these days, they can still give a nasty and deep cut, and if broken from the plastic casing, become a formidable weapon.

Ron, Milton Keynes, Bucks

With regard to the relative increase of 37.5% I understand that the instruction shall be withdrawn again, but I also welcome the attitude in the Prison Service to balance the inmate's income according to inflation tendencies. After having served their sentence inmates also need something to live on.

Heidi, Munich, Germany

with prices going up everywhere then if its increased for there grocerys then i feel they should get an increase ,
after all if terrorists can get human rights then that should effect the people in prison aswell,
they lose civil liberties but still retain a right to a certain standard of living ,

Tony Winchester, Essex, Britain

This is a mean-spirited and transparent attempt to appeal to the worst instincts of the electorate.

'Bashing' prisoners is a an easy, no-risk game. And a pointless one.

A work habit - however restricted by incarceration - among prisoners must be a 'good thing' and pay is a proper reward.

GeoffH, Cumbria,

The prisoners have not had a rise in pay since the 1990's but I am afraid that they will have to live with that, us on the out have to watch our budgets too, particularly when we no longer work.

Let us hope that they are happy with their lot, as its their own fault they are inside.

P Cooper, Leics., UK

<br/>This is the first thing Mr. Brown has done of which I approve and can only hope the rise is not quietly reinstated in a few weeks time.

Patricia Thornton, Veliko Tarnovo,