[Christopher Halsey]

COMMUNITY DEBATE

Prisoner Voting

How prisoners should be treated is something that has been a matter of debate for a very long time and it depends very much on what you personally feel that prisons exist for. Does prison exist to take away the freedom of convicts? To punishment for what they have done in the hopes that they won't make the same mistakes again? Or does prison exist to allow for rehabilitation? A place where convicts can find opportunities for personal transformation? Or you might feel that it should be somewhere in between.

Our Community Debate this week is on the subject of prisoner voting. Should prisoners have the same voting rights as everyone else? The question is a straight yes or no but as always please do post to explain the way that you have voted and don't be afraid to challenge and question the opinions of others.

[Mark Okuda]

No, Prisoners should not have the ability to vote.They have broken the law and are being punished for their criminal acts. The consequences of those acts are the revocation of some rights such as the right to vote.

[Three of Seven]

Nope, they should have no representation in an elected house, unless there is an elected prison governor who sits in the lower house as a crossbencher. If you've committed a crime, you have done so against the people of the land, as such, you shouldn't be allowed to have a say in who represents them through a vote.

[Endeavour]

No. You've committed a crime and been caught, you have therefore forfeited your rights.

[Kains]

Personally I have always thought they should be viewed as a place for rehabilitation, and as such I believe they should have a vote.

There is a saying that society is judged on how they treat their prisoners, I'm sure we've all heard it a million times, and I think it holds true. Ideally we want them to reintegrate with society succesfully, so ideally we want them to behave in a way that benefits society as a whole. Voting is a part of that.

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[Infinity]

I don't believe that prisoners should have the right to vote, they lost that privilege when they committed a criminal offence, until they have served their time for their crimes, they should have no participation in voting. It sounds harsh but they should have some of their rights removed while they are incarcerated.

[Avenger]

I know this has had a debate for some time, I do believe in prisoners having a right to vote as they unfortunately still dwell on the same earth as us and have to have their welfare looked after by a political party, hence why we have a justice and prisons department within the government. However whilst I believe this, I firmly believe that sentencing is too short and they get out too easy, there isn't enough emphasis on rehabilitating offenders during their stay, more hope they behave and kick them out early because we don't have the space for them.

Additionally I do believe prison isn't prison for everybody, I know somebody who went to prison who played tennis most days, had a tv, a games console, sky and a lot of other benefits and said the only real hardship he had was being away from his wife and children.

Prison should be stricter but not turn somebody into a sub citizen for it. However I also believe that mass murderers should be put to the death penalty if the evidence is infallible and is not going to come out in 20 years time as a case the government needs to apologise to the family for!

A controversial point of view yes however I do believe it's fair.

[Deltron]

We need massive reform to address our over crowded, privatized institution before we can ask this question. Determine who needs to be there or not, rehabilitate the ones we can and go from there. Violent criminals are severely traumatized from the life they lived, committing acts of violence, and being incarcerated without proper treatment. Weather they should vote or not is not as important as the medical treatment they need for PTSD.

I think if we can fix what is wrong now then we can evaluate which prisoners can exercise certain rights. We should have an effective and efficient rehabilitation treatment program for non violent criminals. Those who can pass the program should be able to vote. Anyone who is doing over 15 to life for violent crimes should be excluded from the program. Because they're not going anywhere anytime soon.

[Keenan]

If you commit a felony and convicted by a jury of your peers, your voting rights along with freedom should be removed.
Though losing that privilege is not enough of a deterrent from criminal behavior. To think it was not too long ago here in America that only white landowners had the right to vote. How far we have come, yet relatively so few exercise their right.

I do concur that our incarceration system, and follow up needs a lot of improvement.

[aceman67]

Not while they are currently serving time. Once they have paid their debt to society, they should have the rights given back.

[Three of Seven]

Not while they are currently serving time. Once they have paid their debt to society, they should have the rights given back.

Well yeah, once back into the free world, they have served their punishment

[Bar'ol]

When it comes to law breakers I have no love for them, lol. I know super harsh but you break the law you do the time. Along with many others I do believe they should have their rights removed when during the time of fulfilling a sentience. Honestly, I'm all for capital punishment. Dont care about human rights or w/e if you go around (name crime here) innocents because its "fun" no rehab is going to fix that. OFF WITH HIS HEAD!

[Three of Seven]

Capital punishment is a different debate, just my brief word on it, ending someones life is not a punishment, you are giving them a quick escape.

[Deltron]

too bad it doesn't work like that...Getting all your rights back after paying your debt. Nobody hires felons and they lose rights such as voting
traveling abroad, The right to bear arms, jury service, public and social benefits such as housing, and parental benefits. from friends of mine who've been in the system, they will tell you it's not easy and not the same. They are branded as second class citizens.

[Christopher Halsey]

Personally I think prisoners should be able to vote.

Whilst it is easy to think of prisoners as bad people, breaking the law doesn't necessarily make you a bad person and the majority of prison inmates are not violent. A large number of people break the law not because they necessarily want to but because they feel they need to, people who are addicts or are poor or have mental issues for example. You also get people that are innocent but are wrongly sentenced and whilst this isn't true in the majority of cases it is something that can and far too often does happen.

Prisoners are human beings, whilst they might be kept apart from much of society they are still a part of society. Whilst some prisoners will just be bad people, many prisoners are in prison as a result of the failings of society so their vote should be no less valuable than that of anyone else and in several areas they are likely to be better informed.

Painting all prisoners with the same brush by dehumanising them is, in my opinion, ultimately self defeatist as it makes it harder for them to be part of society, increasing the likelihood of repeat offending. I think if politicians had to better understand prisoners, which they would need to do if they wanted their votes, it would only benefit justice systems which in turn would benefit wider society.