Should Prisoners be allowed to vote?

Why should prisoners be allowed to vote? John Hirst 60 the man who's victory in the European Court of Human Rights has brought about the debate in the House of Commons complained that his Human Rights had been violated by not been able to vote although he was in prison for killing his landlady with an axe after she asked him to get some coal for the fire. I won't say that this was the act of an unstable person because it would only help people who say that he was wrongfully given a heavy sentence. What does annoy me with the ECHR and with the UNCHR, is that it is always the wrong doer who is regarded as the victim. It always seems that the victims have no rights.There are people now complaining that a woman who stole a £10 pair of jeans was given a custodial prison sentence, although it was her first offence. Whats wrong with that? A few months ago we had a burglar who was given his first custodial sentence for his 98 offence. In both these and similar cases these people have infringed on innocent peoples lives. Have their human rights not been infringed? Perhaps not in the true sense of the word, but their space has been violated. If that burglar had been given a custodial sentence after his first offence it may have made him think twice before going to commit further offences.