Should People in the Prison System be Allowed to Vote?

Should People in the Prison System (past&present) be Allowed to Vote?

  • Yes; both during and after their prison terms.

    Votes: 5 14.3%
  • Yes; only after their prison term is served.

    Votes: 15 42.9%
  • No; after being charged with a serious crime* the privilege of voting should be taken away.

    Votes: 10 28.6%
  • No; it depends on what the person was charged with.

    Votes: 5 14.3%

  • Total voters
    35
In my opinion doing time means two things:
a) punishment for commited crimes
b) resocialisation.

If you only punish in prison you release even tougher criminals. If they have not been taught to function as a normal participant in our society, you know what they will do. I rarely hear about the second part of punishment and I reckon it is too easily forgotten. Strip them of all their social rights and you'll leave them with nothing.

Most prisons have those programs alot of sentences include programs to be eligable for parole. So yeah they go to all the rehabilitative stuff................so they can be paroled. Then come out and re-offend.

It's easy to blame it on the system, problem is most of the scumbags have no desire to change.
 
I said yes, but only after the sentence is served and the felon is "corrected". Coming to think of it, there are 2 million people in US prisons, if they were all to vote, I think that's very much enough to alter the faith of any presidential election.
 
I believe, depending on the crime, that the person in prison should have the right to vote after paying his/her debt to society. Perhaps they should have to wait until they are no longer on parole to before that PRIVILEGE is given back to them. It seems to me that option to vote should be like the option to obtain a driver's license.

There are people who serve time in prison (albeit few) who actually are not guilty. There are others who deserve to be there, but were caught on a lesser charge, or were set up. I knew someone who was a truck driver, the story I got from him was that he jumped into a truck to help a friend by taking a load... but got caught with cocaine in the truck... perhaps he wasn't telling the truth, but perhaps he was. The point is he was sentenced to prison, but I don't think that his privilege to vote should be taken away for something like that.

The downfall to making new laws is that someone has to enforce them... which costs more time, money, and effort. Would a law like this one be worth moving some of the law enforcement to instead of what they are doing currently?
 
A resounding NO. How can a felon be trusted with the power of the vote when they can't be trusted as a member of society? It's not a matter of demeaning someone who is a criminal, it's taking a powerful tool of directly influencing how the Country is governed much too lightly.
 
Think about it; a person is incarcerated for a length of time. His:her liberties are stripped during his confinement. If you start retoring his rights piecemeal then pretty soon the prisoner will start demanding other civil liberties be restored such as his right to be free. Defeats the purpose of Jail doesn't it?

On a side note, I do believe in a blank slate. Once a person has completed his sentence (his debt to society paid for) his voting rights should be immediatly restored. Perhaps he will reoffend later, but until he does he deserves to be back as a ful member of society again.
 
March 12, 2001
2001-R-0285
VOTING RIGHTS OF FELONS
By: Sandra Norman-Eady, Chief Attorney

Convicted felons in 16 states either have or may have their voting rights restored upon release from a correctional institution. These states are Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Utah. In some of these states, like Illinois, Michigan, and Montana, the felon's voting privileges are automatically restored upon completion of his period of incarceration. In the states that do not allow for automatic restoration, felons must comply with the state's restoration procedures before their voting privileges are restored.
Of the remaining 36 states, 34, including Connecticut, prohibit convicted felons from voting while they are on parole or probation. In 13 of these states, including Alabama, Florida, Iowa, and Wyoming, felons who have completed their sentences can be disenfranchised for life. In Delaware felons can be disenfranchised up to five years after completing their sentence.
Two states, California and Colorado, prohibit felons from voting while on parole but allow them to vote while on probation. (If the General Assembly passes sHB 5042, Connecticut will join these two states by making felons on probation eligible to vote).
Maine and Vermont are the only two states that do not forfeit felons' voting rights.
 
Lets face if they banned every one that had been in trouble with the law then hardly any one would be left to vote.
 
During incarceration, no. They broke the law and were subsequently gaoled for it, they therefore should lose normal rights of citizenship...

The right to vote, should only be reinstated following their release, (on completion of gaol term)
 
During incarceration, no. They broke the law and were subsequently gaoled for it, they therefore should lose normal rights of citizenship...

The right to vote, should only be reinstated following their release, (on completion of gaol term)

I agree although I believe the non-voting period should include any time on probation or parole as well.

Basically once you are free of any obligation to the courts you should have full citizenship rights returned.
 
Back
Top