should prisoners be allowed to vote?

[donnie]

this seems to be a hot topic at the moment; apparently some prisoners in the UK have won a case in the European courts which has decreed that the current ban on voting breaches their human rights.
Not sure where I stand on this - the right to vote is hugely important IMO, but then again I don't feel comfortable with the likes of Sutcliffe or Huntley having a vote.
What do others think?

I don't think they should be able to vote. I don't really understand the violation of human rights arguement at all.

If you go down that road, surely simply being in prison is a violation of their human rights?

They CHOSE to do a crime - very few are inside for no reason or because they were forced. When they chose to do that crime, they knew of the possible consequences - possible imprisonment - yet they chose to do it anyway.

Prison is supose to be a punishment. It is supposed to take away their freedom to do ordinary day to day stuff. And also took away their right to be a member of society for a while.

Voting is the ultimate part of belonging to a free country I guess. Well, they chose not to be a part of that free society (when they did the crime), therefore they chose to have that right taken away.

I have actually discussed this with a couple of clases of inmates (male, range of crimes, range of ages, crimes from cat C type - drugs, etc - to cat A/lifer - nasty stuff). The majority did not feel they should vote whilst in prison. For many reasons - some apathy to voting anyway, some as they felt that in prison they should have that right.

Makes you wonder if it is just another way of trying to get more people to vote seeing as numbers go down year on year.

But hulababy - lots of people are in prison because they got in with the wrong crowd or have a nasty temper/mental illness (for example). Their punishment is the denial of liberty and yes, they still have rights. The right to vote is fundamental to our society and should not be removed imo.

and what about those who, in lots of people's opinions, have commited worse crimes than some (not all by any means) of those that are in jail. However they've only been served with a community service order - which allows them to still be able to vote!

...and those who never got caught?

or those who have had charges levelled at them, but never been taken to court due to lack of evidence (Huntley.....)??

It would be very entertaining if prisoners got the right to vote and MPs in marginal constituencies had to canvass their local prisons. How do you sell 'tough on crime' to criminals?!

NO NO NO

hate this soppy attitude to human rights, what happened to common sense?

no

No.

Still not convinced, sorry. Maybe I have spoken to and been around too many inmates now. As I said before even many of them don't feel they should have the vote! The ones that did tended to be the older ones on longer sentences - the ones were it wouldn't actually be that worth their while really.

Prisin IS a violation of human rights; that's the whole point of it.

Still think it is more beneficial from a governments point of view. They just want to raise voting numbers.

If everyone in prison was forced to vote, it would be interesting as there are literally as many people in prison that do vote apparently.

as you sure undercovermum - I thought the current prison population was about 78k............I'm sure there are more people that vote than that!

hula - no they don't - it was a judge who ruled that some prisoners should be allowed to vote, it's not a gvt policy.

As for "this soupy attitude to human rights"... so we should run prisons like the victorians did then should we?

yes

No, we shouldn't run prisons like Victorian times, but we shouldn't run them like hotels, either.

Prison life is NOT that harsh believe me. Even the inmates will tell you that! It's not a doddle and some find it a bit difficult, but it is hardly like Victorian times.

Prisons should not, and are not, run like Victirian times. Prison life is NOT as big a punishment as people would often like it to be, Many inmates will say that it is pretty relaxed inside. Cells are very much like student halls of residence rooms, except for the bars on the windows and they don't have a key for their room. It is very possible for an inmate to laze around all day in their cell watching TV if that is what they wish - a few do. They chose to share cells often so they have someone to chat with and drink(!) half the night. Drugs are common in prisons, despite checks. They make their own alcohol at every opportunity. As some of my inmates tell me the only thing they can't get is a girl. Some inmates do find prison life difficult and unpleasant - but surely that should be the case for more. Prison should not be fun and games, a social life... it should be working when told to do so, keeping busy, following courses and programmes to reduce risks of offending, sticking to set rules and regimes - not watching Trisha in a morning and Richard and Judy in the afternoon.

Prisons should be a violation of their human rights - that's the whole point.

Why should you have rights given to you by society if you have never shown responsibility for your actions within society?

I think prisoners should have the right to vote - the punishment imo is (and should be) loss of freedom, not loss of all other basic human needs like food and shelter and voting.

Wonder if anyone has actually worked out all the logistics involved in prisoners voting too. This WILL cost tax payers money to put in place. Postal voting will not be possible - all incoming and outgoing mail has to bechecked. Not sure proxy voting can happen - same as above or a crowded visiting room is not private for passing such wishes on. Which means a baollot room set up in the priosn. Every inmate will need excorting to this room, normal regimes will be interrupted (can cause a lot of problems, changes to routine in prisons generally do), timing will be crucial, some inmates (those in seg, hospital, basic) need to be with an officer 100% when out of cell so is their vote private (?)... all of this WILL cost money (extra staff, checking of officials who will need to come in independently to supervise the voting) and time.

As a collective body, the prison population runs into many tens of thousands. Therefore, if prisoners were allowed to vote they would make up a substantial group in society with their own agenda which would need to be canvassed by both government and opposition alike.
How would this affect policy making? Personally, I don't want the Home Office becoming lenient because the Home Sec happens to have Strangeways in his constituency!