United Kingdom is one of the countries of European Union which bans voting among convicted prisoners (Black, Dhami, and Easter 2012, 44). According to ICPS (2013), total population of prisoners in UK,including Scotland and Northern Ireland equals to 94,136. Allowing inmates to take a part in elections became a serious political issue aftr the decision of European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the "Hirst vs UK" case, which ruled that the rights of convicted were violated by total prohibition on voting in the elections undr the ECHR. However, parliament of the country has different views - most of th goverment's representatives do not agree with court's ruling. There are still a lot of discussions, relating to this question and no common solution was found (Ramsay 2013, 421). The question of disfranchisement has many controvrsial opinions and there are supporters on the both sides of the issue, each having considerable arguments to maintain their visions. Disputing both negative and positive sides, this paper displays that denounced inmates should not be allowed to participate in elections.
Even though prisoners are isolated from the society, they remain human yet and retain their basic human rights. As one would know choice is one of the fundamental rights of a human being. Also prisoners still remain citizens, so, according to the Article 25 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights: "citizens have the right to vote" (Black, Dhami and Easter, 2012, 43). Sometimes situation in country, which could occur after voting, may seriously influence on whole country, including prisoners themselves, so, even if they are only a little part of nation, they should have a right to take a part in elections. Nevertheless, kee...
... middle of paper ...
...ll, on account of this points which were listed above it is strongly recommended for Britain to continue not allowing prisoners a right to vot in elections.
Works Cited
Black, Tim, Susan Easter. 2012. "Should Prisoners Be Allowed to Vote" Criminal Justice Matters 90(1): 43-44
Blais, Andre, Louis Massicotte and Antoine Yoshinaka. 2001. "Deciding who has the right to vote: a comparative analysis of election laws." Electoral Studies 20(1):41-62
International Center for Prison Studies. 2013. "Entire world - Prison Population Rates per 100,000 of the national population." Last modified September 27, 2013.
Lardy, Heather.2004."Is there a right to vote." Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 24(2):303-321
Ramsay, Peter. 2013. "Voters should not be in prison! The rights of prisoners in a democracy."Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 16(3): 421-438
Reverse Outline of “A Letter from Birmingham Jail ” I. Purpose: To argue the claim that his non-violent campaign is “unjust or untimely” II. Body: Contradiction I. Rejecting the claim that he is an outsider that doesn’t belong in Birmingham a) He was asked to participate in Birmingham. b) He has organizational affiliation in Birmingham II.
The feelings of allowing felons to vote is chilling; those who have been to prison have committed crimes and are out to get their rights back. But it is clear that felons should be “disenfranchised because they have broken the laws,” says Edward Feser, a philosophy professor and writer. Yet people are still questioning whether it is moral to keep felons from getting the rights to vote. Disenfranchising felons is unintentional in racial issues, and is used to punish felons to teach them that once they've broken the laws, they have lost their voting rights as well, and it would also keep felons from violating fellow citizens' voting rights.
Mauer, Marc. 1999. The Race to Incarcerate. New York: The New Press National Research Council. 1993.
Most politicians argue that because a felon has committed a crime that their judgment can no longer be trusted. Some believe that they gave up there civil liberties when they chose to commit a crime. However, with the exception of children and the mentally incompetent, people who have to live with the consequences of an election should have their opinion counted. Convicts lose their civil rights while incarcerated. Others who agree with felons regaining their voting rights argued that if they really could not be trusted to change then they should never be let out of prison. Although they lost their civil liberties w...
Should Felons Lose the Right to Vote? Retrieved from http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2010/03/22/should-felons-lose-the-right-to-vote/. Karlan, Pamela (2004). The 'Pale of the 'Pale of the 'Pale of the "Convictions and Doubts: Retribution, Representation, and the Debate" over Felon Disenfranchisement," Stanford Law Review, Vol. 78, No. 1, pp 56, No. 2 -. 5, Krajick, Kevin. The Species of the World.
"Criminal Disenfranchisement Laws." Brennan Center for Justice. New York University School of Law, n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. .
...he right to vote. I made a ten question survey that asked questions about letting convicted felons have the right to vote in major elections throughout America. Thirteen out of thirty high school students said that convicted felons should have the right to vote because they are American citizens. The other seventeen people I surveyed said that they should not have the right to vote because they had their chance to perform correctly in society and failed miserably. As you can now see, I have given you many reasons to see that convicted felons should not have the right to vote. They cannot be trusted with such a responsibility as voting for this country’s next leader.
Although this right is considered fundamental, restrictions have been placed on this right. The main restriction is placed on persons convicted of a felony conviction, all felonies, not just infamous ones. Today on Election Day, as Americans wait in line to cast their vote, over 4.65 million people are denied this most fundamental democratic right because of a past or present felony conviction. It is true that some felons can make bad judgments that are provocative and rebellious and the foundation to further jeopardy. In fact, statistics show the number of times prisoners had been arrested was the best predictor of whether they would commit more crimes after being released and how quickly they would return to their criminal ways....
Dinkin, M., and White, I.2008. Voting system in UK. Library of House of Commons: Parliament and Constitution Centre. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/files/108_icpr_final.pdf (accessed November 20, 2010)
"Election Protection • You Have the Right to Vote." Election Protection. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2013. .
.In Gearty’s perspective, politics will always be threatened by the legalism of human rights. This internalisation of rights into the legal system have allowed and exaggerated the flawed dichotomy within politics and law. This has allowed politics to become a censored voice, no longer representing activism and civil engagement as it becomes filtered through the legal system and the rule of law. Gearty views this as dangerous as it can lead to politicians to take actions based which lobbyist they are aligned with instead criticising developments of this kind. Gearty points out that a “particular unfortunate consequence of the legalisation of what are effectively political decisions is that the dressing up of them in constitutional or “human
McMurty, John. "Caging the Poor: The Case Against the Prison System." The Case For Penal Abolition. Ed. W. Gordon West and Ruth Morris. Toronto, Canada: Canadian Scholars' Press, 2000. 167-186.
When prisons get overcrowded need for money rises to repair and operate machines. Some prison workers or all get paycheck cuts and higher health risk, this puts a negative look for people wishing to work at the prison. This presents a bad look on prisons and sometimes gains the locals attention. This also extends the amount of money taxpayers have to give to help the prison with overcrowding problems, it makes locals unhappy and some may become indebt with lots of taxes. This can also cause protest and has happened with the states to reduce the amount of money you have to give for prisons.
Verkaik, R. (2006) The Big Question: What are the alternatives to prison, and do they work? The Independent [online] 10 October. Available from:
Blais, Andre. "Electoral Insight." CCL Web: Criteria for Assessing Electoral Systems (1999): 1-6. Web. 26 Aug. 2010.