Should prisoners have the vote?

Over the past couple of weeks there have been various stories in the British media begrudging Court rulings about the human rights of the people inside the British prisons.

In November 2010, the European Court of Human Rights gave the British government 6 months to "get it's house in order" with regards to the issue of prisoner voting rights, an issue that the previous Government "kicked into the long grass" according to a former cabinet minister.  The Court recommended that Britain ended it's blanket ban on not giving criminals the vote whilst they are in prison, suggesting that a discriminatory policy would be fairer, such as a ban for life-sentenced prisoners or allowing more shorter-term inmates the vote.

This sparked weeks of Daily Mail-type stories bemoaning how the rights of offenders are being put about the rights of the law abiding population, a claim that, to me anyway, doesn't seem to make much sense, as no law abiding citizen is likely to be harmed through the act of a prisoner voting.  A Q&A article from the BBC sets out some of the reasons for and against removing the right to vote from prisoners.

In terms of reasons for taking away the vote, the predominant argument is that prisoners shouldn't be entitled to vote by principle.  Put simply, if you've been found guilty of a crime so "serious" that it requires imprisonment, then you give up your right to contribute to how the country is run.  Even the ex-attorney general jumped onto this bandwagon, stating that "if convicted rapists and murderers are given the right to vote it will bring the law into disrepute and many people will see it as making a mockery of justice".

Allow me now to flip this around.  What if giving prisoners the right to vote encouraged them to become more engaged with society.  As you may have guessed, I view prison as a place for rehabilitation.  The vast majority of prisoners will be released at some point, so why don't we encourage them to become active, political citizens, capable of interacting with the rest of society in a "normal", law-abiding way?  Rehabilitation can be encouraged through making the environment as normal as possible for prisoners.  This also reduces the culture-shock that can be experienced upon release from prison, meaning that ex-offenders can continue their new life in the outside world as opposed to trying to re-establish themselves within it.

However, I do appreciate that lifting the ban and allowing all prisoners to vote would not satisfy the vast majority of the British population.  Indeed, Prime Minister David Cameron remarked that the idea made him feel "physically sick".  It may be a good idea to allow prisoners who will be released in the upcoming Parliament to vote in elections.  This would mean anyone with less than 5 years left to serve on their sentence would be eligible to vote.  Again, this would help the rehabilitation process as they feel as though they are contributing to the society that they will soon be rejoining.

That's my view, what about yours?  Use the comments box to contribute your opinions.

Take care,
Craig

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