Millions of Americans cannot vote because of a felony conviction. People who have done nothing wrong and people who have committed minor crimes have been removed from voting rolls. The American penal system was based on the belief that status in society can be redeemed, and the standards should not be changed for felons. After a felon has served the sentenced prison time, he or she should be able to rejoin society. Felons should have the right to vote restored after being released from prison. A felony is a crime that is usually punished by incarceration. The laws on felon voting change from state to state. Some states like Maine and Vermont allow prison inmates to continue voting and never take the right to vote away…Contrastingly, states …show more content…
After leaving prison, a felon is already viewed as not as important as a citizen who has never committed a crime. It can be very difficult to participate and take part in community activities such as getting a job. Felons feel unimportant and unwanted. It is unjust for felons to be treated this way. Several people who have been incarcerated have been interviewed on this topic. One person said, “It was a real exciting feeling… All of a sudden, I’m a person to them again” (Kumar 2). Regaining the right to vote makes the formally incarcerated feel as if redemption is within reach. Voting can make a person feel validated. “Just because I was incarcerated, that means I’m nothing now?” (Kestin 3). It is psychologically harmful to be stripped of the right to …show more content…
It is very difficult to distinguish between a felon and a person who has never been incarcerated. It is more difficult than one might think. It is confusing when two people have the same name or other similarities. A case in Florida showcases this. “Desperate to prevent convicted criminals from voting, Florida hired Database Technologies to produce a list of felons on the voter rolls. But the list was so poorly drawn that people who had never been convicted of a crime were kicked off the rolls. So were hundreds of former felons from other states who had been granted clemency and should have been allowed to vote” (Hiaasen 8). People who should be allowed to vote were not able to because of a list that contained incorrect information. Many Florida citizens were affected by this. “35,865 [were] identified as felons because name and birth date matched” (Hiaasen 8). This means that thirty-five thousand eight hundred sixty-five Florida citizens were wrongly accused of a felony. The process of removing all felons from the voting rolls is very complicated and far too easy to
Jacoby pointed out facts such as in many states, in order to ease the pressure of prison-building, “nearly all convicted felons
http://www.newsmax.com/FastFeatures/felons-voting-rights-history/2015/04/16/id/638889/ "Disfranchisement." West 's Encyclopedia of American Law. 2005. Retrieved May 01, 2016 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3437701425.html “Felon Voting.” ProCon. 2008.
So the ones, who think felon’s or ex-felons should not vote, hold a grudge and begin to despise the idea of allowing a felon to vote. People want to continue with felon disenfranchisement and exclude felons from their own country. Although felons seem to have no morals. In all honesty, they do and they should be allowed at least one right that all Americans are able to share with one another.
Convicted Felons and the Labeling Theory Paige Leary November 30, 2015 Criminology Delinquent, criminal, felon, all are labels that society give people who have been convicted of crime and therefore believed to have no respect for the law. Once an individual has been associated as someone who has no respect for the law they are often ostracized from their social groups. When a criminal has been denied by their friend groups they often begin to associate with people who are “like” them meaning that they are now associated with people who also engage in deviant behavior (Forensic Psych). All of the delinquent behavior that occurs after they have been ostracized from their original social group has been often the cause of them being
For both groups, once they have made amends for their mistake, their life doesn’t go back to normal. Instead, these labels follow them, making it hard to get a job or get back into society. As said in the Washington Post article “Our criminal justice system is making it really hard to people to find jobs,” “…our criminal justice system makes it harder for those who have made mistakes to fully atone for their deeds and rejoin the productive segment of society” (Blanks 2). Once people get out of jail, they are still not free from punishment. It is harder to get a job, especially a good one, if someone was an ex-offender.
This is certainly a conflicting issue. While it is fair to value the welfare of law abiding citizens over the welfare of convicted felons, placing restricting on felons presents the issue of those felons lacking the ability to become a contributing member of society. Like you mentioned, that can provide the push needed for them to return to crime rather than working towards a steady life of their own. Further research into the costs and benefits of such restrictions is necessary to determine whether these types of restrictions actually do benefit society overall like they intend to.
A finding from a study done by the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that 67.8 percent of ex-convicts were rearrested. Two-thirds of them spent their time in prison waiting for the release, only to go back into that dirty old cell again. Why don’t they try to get a real job, earn their own living and cherish the second chance we grant them. Let’s step down from the moral high ground for a second. Often released prisoners lack the skills and knowledge to keep up with the pace of society.
Former Felons Deserve to Vote Felons can permanently lose their right to vote in ten different states and have their voting rights restricted in thirty-eight of them, this means that in forty-eight states there are people who are not able to express their opinion, they have had their voice taken from them. Many people who were once convicted of a felony want to change their life around, they want to be a normal civilian to the United States, not someone seen as a juvenile or a law breaker. Being able to vote is a right and part of being a U.S. citizen, these people have had part of their citizenship taken from them, some won’t ever have that piece of citizenship for the rest of their life because of human disenfranchisement, a law passed in 1789. This law stated that all felons, blacks, and women were not allowed to vote. Since the passing of this law blacks and women were given their rights to vote however felons never were.
Felons should not have the privilege of voting taken away after being convicted of a felony. Felons should be allowed to vote during and after the prison term. For numerous years, the U.S. Justice Department has been advocating states to reject laws that prevent felons from voting (Mauer, von Spakvosky , “Should Felons Be Able to Vote?”) Laws that prevent felons from voting have been found fair. Most states have adopted voting
The article written by Clegg explains how in order for a convicted felon to have their chance to vote again must have to have his or hers case analyzed based upon their new actions. In the first paragraph of the article he states: “ The right to vote should only be restored to felons on a case-by-case basis after a person has shown that he or she has truly changed.” This idea does not restore the person their right to vote, it
The removal of this right dehumanizes prisoners. The streets of Texas are filled with blue or white collar criminals on bail or simply waiting for their sentence. Presently, if individual are found guilty of a crime, but they are not given a judicial sentence they are still allowed to vote; why should there be treated differently from convicted criminals who are locked up? However, allowing prisoners to vote while in prison would increase voting turnout and also Texas would gain the reputation of becoming one of the two states that allow prisoners to vote while in prison.
The United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for several reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. This literature review will discuss the ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system and how mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism has become a problem.
The right to vote was a privilege given to only a particular group of people in the past. The right to participate in the judicial system to some is an honor. This process allows people to voice and chose who they want in office or what issue they want to support. Voter Id laws are incorporated into our society as a form of control in order to keep people silent. Voter id laws are under controversy because the law is viewed as being discriminatory against minorities.
These efforts to block ex-felons to vote are unfair, undemocratic, and politically or racially motivated. Others who disagree may say they have shown poor judgement and should not be trusted with a vote. This is false because no one is perfect and everyone
Ladies and gentlemen, today we are here to discuss an important matter, should prisoners be allowed to vote. This matter is mostly based on opinions but such an important decision cannot be taken lightly. Furthermore, both sides of the argument must be taken into balance before a final decision is taken as this decision may impact the entire future of a country. Monsters that 's what they are.