The right of prisoners to vote, it’s in the news again, and I for one am getting a little tired of hearing about it. The European Court of Human Rights has said, ( many times and on many occasions) that our Gov, along with several other members of the EC, does not have the right to impose a blanket ban on prisoners right to vote. I’m sure half the ‘interest’ in this is invented by the media on order to A; sell more & make more and B; to incite the general public into yet another frenzy of self righteous indignation directed against yet another despised minority group, (in this case prisoners).
Personally I can’t muster an awful lot of enthusiasm for the campaign against prisoners voting. The whole thing seems illogical to me. I thought one of the primary purposes of our judicial system was the rehabilitation of criminals, I thought we wanted our prisoners to become fully functioning, responsible, contributing, tax paying and involved members of our community. I thought we wanted them to stop lurking in some sort of alternative underworld of crime where they contribute nothing, play no positive role in the community and take all they can at every opportunity.
Hmmmmmmmmmm………..tell me; am I missing something here or is encouraging every one to use their vote and participate in society at the most fundamental level NOT the way to promote good citizenship?? I’m kinda confused at the logic of it all. Its quite possible the act of voting would be the closest many of these prisoners have ever come to participating positively in our society
OR………..maybe those people making so much noise about this are simply using it to argue against human rights in general, and the general public, displaying its usual gullible, apathy are swept along with this completely illogical argument.
am wih you on this one loretta
ReplyDeleteShamefully this is something that I hadn't thought or heard about.
ReplyDeleteno shame here Brenda, I had to do several searches to find an up to date report on this topic. I think things our Government(s) don't want us thinking/ talking about are deliberately buried. But... if you follow then link, about half way down the report, is a list of other EC countries that with hold the rights of prisoners to vote. I don't remember seeing Spain amongst them.
ReplyDeleteWe're having elections later on this month so I wonder.
ReplyDeleteUSA - in jail= can't vote. In most states, your conviction of a felony means you lose your right to vote. Mostly forever.
ReplyDeleteI am glad I live in the US. I also agree with the loss of right to vote.
ReplyDeleteThey can't vote in Spain either - just found the information.
ReplyDeletethat doesn't suprise me in the least
ReplyDeletethen we agree, I'm also glad you live in the US :-)
ReplyDeletePrisoners have the right to vote here in Canada. I believe it is a good sign because they would effectively be able to decide their own futures in a way.
ReplyDeleteIf you have the right to vote you have a voice in what is happening to you whether you are a free person or an incarcerated one.
Thanks for your blog Loretta.
I feel very much the same way that you do. With our newly voted in Ultra Conservative majority government I wouldn't put anything past them.
In other words it would be just like them to try to take away the rights of prisoners.It hasn't happened yet but I will keep ears and eyes open.
:)
Yes, so much of this inciting of the public by media goes on; so manipulative as I've often observed.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that rights fall in line with assumed responsibilities. When those in society shirk their responsiblities (ie. as in 'law abiding citizen') then rights are revoked. It could be argued that to vote is to assume responsibility. I would imagine incarceration is about punishment for crimes that includes methodology of rehabilitation.
This current media-inspired kafuffle probably ignores for its own reasons that there are already laws governing the incarcerated. It's possible there's been lobbyists for the laws about prisoners' rights to vote to change. The answer for it all might lie in the source of the current media/public 'interest' in it all.