Letters: Why we should give prisoners the right to vote
Tuesday 29th March 2011, 6:00AM BST.
Letter: It is interesting to note that in the mid-nineteenth century only men of property could vote.
This included factory and mine owners, who abused children on an industrial scale, along with convicted felons, working men and all women had no vote.
Only after the elite had sent hundreds of thousands of young men to their deaths in war were they persuaded to give those remaining the vote. It was a further 10 years before women gained the same right.
Too many see the judicial system solely as a vindictive tool to punish those seen to have wronged us. If we want prisoners to return safely to the community we have to do more than lock them up.
Released prisoners who feel they have a stake in society will be better citizens. One way of engaging individuals with the responsibilities of citizenship is to give them the right to vote.
We must try harder to reintegrate prisoners into society.
A C Mitchell
Telford
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Are you crazy? What so they can vote for suspended sentences for murderers and other such criminals as themselves?
Hell, why don’t we get rid of law abiding citizens altogether and let the lunatics take over the asylum?
How about making Jon Venables Home Secretary? After all, he might have been a bit of a naughty boy but he should still get to dictate how long his sentence should have been.
I have never, in all my life, heard such a ridiculous proposition and you are asking for all the criticism due to you Mr. Mitchell for siding with the rights(or quite rightly lack thereof) of paedophiles and murderers before law abiding citizens and victims.
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And breathe…………….. I agree absolutely that we should be making a better job of rehabilitating criminals, but that requires more money for drug rehabilitation in prison and support on their release from prison – not the right to vote, which is pretty superfluous really. The generality of your letter excites anger because it lumps men who it will never be possible to rehabilitate in with those that it might be possible to turn into law abiding citizens.
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In an age where we seem to have gone completely soft on criminals, jail sentences are getting rarer and shorter. By the time someone actually gets to jail, often after many previous offences which only got them community service, referral orders and the like, they have amply demonstrated that they have opted out of society and are unfit to vote on it’s governance.
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“Jail sentences are getting rarer and shorter”. Nonsense. Have a look at the size of our prison population now compared to 20 years ago…it’s doubled. Unfortunatly most people in this country are “informed” on such matters by a tabloid press that refuses to let such things as facts get in the way of a good headline.
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Trouble is, by making prisoners feel that they are equal and valid members of society, with all the benefits and privileges afforded to those who do abide by the laws of the land, you undermine the deterrent that is a prison sentence.
Yes, the main aim should be to stop people getting to prison in the first place, but prisons need to be there for people who are a danger to society, and once inside they should not be treated the same as those on the outside.
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Well said A C Mitchell. The puropose of prison is punishment, rehabilitation and loss of liberty. It is not loss of citizenship. The majority of those who commit offences come from dysfunctional and abusive backgrounds, many have some form of mental health need, and many are drug or alcohol dependent. If we wish to rehabilitate such people to reduce the risk of further offending then that process must include getting them to appreciate and participate in their role as citizens. By permitting them the vote we are not empowering them to dictate sentences; that role rests with parliament.
The Jon Venables comment of E deserves to be treated with disdain. In this country we will not allow children under the age of 13 years to purchase a hamster as they are not deemed to be emotionally mature enough; yet we deem those aged just 10 years to be criminally responsible. Please try and keep the discussion points sensible and avoid unnecessarily emotive contributions.
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‘ please try and keep the discussion points sensible’?!? The point of this comments area is to put forward opinion so please don’t think so little of other contributers who have different views to your own. My view is to increase jail terms and really punish those who have wronged society, voting should be the very last right given to criminals.
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I have no problem with Prisoners being able to vote. But I do with letting them out to be able to vote.
If they feel that strongly, then they can apply for a postal vote and vote in their domiciled area. The difference that they will make in any vote is the the square root of nothing.
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“We must try harder to reintegrate prisoners into society.”
No, Prisoners must try harder to reintegrate into into society!
This is our society, with our rules and standards, if you break them then you must go out of our society.
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Let me tell you from experience that the jails are full of criminals who have no interest in going straight. They don’t want to work, they don’t want to do a honest days work.
A prison sentence is a removal of one’s freedom and rights as a citizen.
They loose the right to be a free member of society and therefor they have no right to vote.
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I agree totally with E’s response to Mitchell’s statement re prisoners having ‘rights.’ I think that you will find that the majority of cases that go to the European Court of Human Rights come from criminals – law abiding citizens have no need to appeal.
The problem with society is that there is no longer a meaningful deterrent.
I wonder why we keep individuals who have committed such heinous crimes in these austere and over-populated times? The death penalty (hanging) was abolished because some innocent people were hung – since the advent of DNA sampling this will not happen – and if people don’t agree with hanging then a more humane way should be introduced. Let’s be transparent and offer more support to victims of crime and not the perpetrators. The latter should lose all their ‘rights’ as they have committed crimes against humanity – and everyone should know this from the day they were born.
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Right, rights, rights all this talk of rights for Criminals, what about the rights of victims? Are Victims rights taken into account when deciding if someone deprived of their liberty because of their actions should vote, somehow I do not think so!
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If a person is convicted of a crime and given a prison sentence of whatever time then they have to repay a debt to society for their misdeed,so therefore it is fair that whilst in prison they loose their democratic right to vote.
As soon as they complete their sentence the right to vote returns.
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Well said john and iron flag. Why are Jails so full?????. Because they are like Hotels. Jail should be a punishment, but people like simon have no thought for the VICTIMS.
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Firstly I must point out that there are two Simons contributing…one of them is not me. Secondly I would like to observe that if one ignores the more emotive and high profile rarities this whole subject becomes easier to discuss.
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If a person abuses or takes aways another persons rights for example, rapes them. WHY should they be allowed their own rights? And in this case the right to vote?
In the politest way I can say on here, stop talking rubbish!
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What utter rubbish!
I agree with points 7 and 14. It’s people like the author of this letter that are making this country what it is today, biased towards the minorities and criminals, treating them as “victims” which is ludicrous.
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What tosh! If they wanted to be useful and productive members of society, they wouldn’t commit crimes and get imprisoned. Certainly they should be represented by the appropriate MP for their prison but forfeiture of liberty also means losing the right to vote.
Prison is way too soft. 8 hours’ genuine labour every day on works beneficial to the public and community would be far more of an incentive to go straight when they do come out.
And, “yes” I do see prison as “punishment”. Can’t face the time? Don’t do the crime.
How about more emphasis on VICTIMS, here!
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Dear A C Mitchell.
That there was a struggle for the common man to be granted the right to the vote is well known and that there was a struggle & a fight for the man in the street to have a voice underpins the fact that those in prison are rightly denied one.
You see dear AC Mitchell, making ends meets is a struggle enough these days what with the ever-increasing cost of living then static or negative wage rises. But it’s an honest struggle. It’s a struggle that thankfully the major majority of men & women in the meet head on by way of often long hours of hard & HONEST work to address. Those good people EARN the right to vote.
No amnesty, no leniency & no vote. I’m beginning to wonder dear AC Mitchell, are you an MP who has realised the potential of prison vote or do you have near or dear locked away?
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Who cares? Do you really think that 99% of the prison population are bothered whether they get a vote or not? Do you think they would vote if they were out of prison? It’s arguing for argument’s sake.
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when a prisoner does his time. he owes us nothing. lets get off their backs. they can vote in canada.
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When he/she is a free person they can vote for sure, but not whilst they’re serving time. Have you read the article correctly and the above objections?
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It’s Labour best chance of winning the election nwxt time round.
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Well Buskerman, the struggling common man being granted the right to vote is just another right that has been squandered by modern society be they in or out of prison.
The true crime is having a vote and not using it come election time – those are the ones that should be in prison as they commit a grave crime against the very society that tolerates them.
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