[Torkel]

See, this is why I put "inmates should have decent drinking water" first in my comment, and "inmates should have clean water" as the very last words.

It seems to me you are making the exact error in argument I react against. Stop making everything a "human right". You see, in the end, when you've made everything "human rights", the whole "human rights" concept will cease to have any meaning whatsoever and you will have lost.

[iamnothere]

The ability to convey oneself to water, collect it, and drink it is a natural right. If this right is removed by state incarceration then the state needs to provide a safe substitute, unless laws provide for punishment through dehydration (which seems cruel and unusual to me).

This isn’t cleanly mapped to typical notions of human rights, but it’s still a question of rights.