Today we live in a society where people are taught that it is acceptable to revoke the born given right of voting. People should be allowed to vote under any circumstances no matter what they have done in the past, this includes felons and ex felons. Assume an american man was convicted of a common assault charge at the age of eighteen and convicted of a felony. Twenty years later the same man is still not allowed to vote because of his ignorance in the past. There is not a person in this world who would like to be defined by their past in such a way. There are many reasons as to why felons and ex felons should be allowed to vote. 5.85 million people that are not able to vote due to disenfranchisement laws in america. The reasons ex felons …show more content…
There is not a person in this world that can be defined as perfect, many of us often make mistakes everyday. When a person does mess up or do something wrong we often hope that there will be another chance to do right and fix what we have done wrong in the past. Second chances can take the worst of people and turn them into the great law abiding citizens that every country needs. Giving ex felons second chances should be a slow process with small steps leading to being a normal citizen again and the first step would be them regaining their voting rights back. Convicted ex felons are just as much as american citizens as anybody else a person may know. Ex felons having their voting rights cannot personally harm anybody. Their vote is one vote against the other millions of the American population, restoration of ex felon voting rights is not going to make anything any worse for anybody. They just deserve the same voting rights as anybody else in the country. The only way to show that is to give the felons a second chance, everybody else in a functioning society receives second chances, so why are ex felons confined to one single chance? This shows inequality in our justice system and that is not the proper way to reintroduce ex felons into a normal functioning society. “If we thought criminals could never be reformed, we wouldn’t let them out of prison in the first place” …show more content…
As a felon, coming out of prison all you know is how to live in prison, many are unsure how to go back into a normal functioning society and move along productively. Restoring, but also limiting their rights is a small way to show them that they are equal to all the others in society and keeps them from feeling like outcasts and the social pariahs that this world makes them out to be. Felons and Ex felons are equal to any other american citizen, their only difference is the ex felons have made mistakes in their past that have negatively affected them and their lives. However, mistakes made from the past should not affect people 's later lives in such a way that it can keep people from the obtaining the most basic of rights, this includes voting. Restoring the voting rights of ex felons would help them learn the value of the justice system and the law to strengthen their participation in average life practices. ”Even prisoners would learn to respect the law and contribute to the ‘common good’ with voting rights, according to sociologists Jeff Manza of Northwestern University and Christopher Uggen of the University of
"U.S. has the highest incarceration rate out of all of Europe"(Sentencing 17). We do not have to imprison everyone if they do a wrong. Prisons should be a last resort, not a first option. Prison should only hold killers or drug lords, not some person who accidentally got involved with illegal
But they fail to realize that the system we have now throws anyone in jail no matter if the person committed the crime or not. They also fail to realize that the current system sentencing isn't organized or fair because there are people out there innocent and people who don’t deserve that time that was given for petty crimes. The current system doesn’t seek for justice, they see everyone who gets arrested as a criminal and feels they should be thrown away for a very long time and that isn't fair. Sentencing reforming is highly recommended due to the outrageous modern sentencing practices we have today. People go to jail or maybe even prison for such petty crimes that doesn't deserve the many years that were given to them.
With having a background already on the idea of what the government interest served by disenfranchising felons. The definition of disenfranchising felons is basically taking away their rights to votes. George Will first starts talking about how people that may have made by chooses when they were younger, have turned it around but since for example, he stated in Florida people that have been convicted have been disgraced because of their past. He uses the example of Desmond Meade that turned his life around trying to paint the picture of someone that was involved in drugs and what not having that one accident or being in a “bummy path of life”. “He is a graduate of Florida International University law school but cannot vote in his home state
United States citizens with a criminal background should be allowed to vote in their state of residency Ontreal Harris Professor Ross Composition II Reference Shaw, Jerry. “When Did Ex-Felons Lose Their Rights to Vote? A History.” Newsmax. Newsmax Media, Inc.
On the contrary, they continue to misbehave as the way that had them chained up. Rehabilitating from crime is similar to recovering from drug abuse, the most effective way to cut off from further engagement is to keep anything related out of reach. Yet, the prison has done the opposite, no prisoner can reform under such circumstance. Prison is supposed to put an end to criminal activities but it turns out to be the extension; crime keeps happening in and out of the prison and criminals stay as
Even if they did let the prisoners vote it wouldn’t have much of an affect to people behind bars. If someone does not have freedom then some privileges will be lost. When crimes are committed the convict isn’t thinking about voting, but months later they are going to miss having that option. Not being able to vote is sad and I know it’s frustrating, because prisoners don’t have any type of power. Resources say “Some people are best left in the past, along with their mistakes and regrets” (Golfian).
All felons deserve to have the right to vote because they are still part of this country and this society. Some people have made several mistakes in their lives that they would love to go back in time to fix everything they did that made
In 1972, former President Richard Nixon made his infamous statements regarding crime and drug abuse. In this speech, he declared a war on crime and drugs and intended to decrease the number of people using drugs and the amount of crimes that were committed. Since this declaration, incarceration rates in the U.S. have gone up by 500%, even though the amount of crime happening has gone down. One of the reasons why I feel our rates have risen, is because sometimes, we put people in jail when they don’t need to be there in the first place.
Without a serious punishment, these people are more likely to repeat their crimes. Heather Kramer and Otis Newton, who write for the Lakeside Publishing Group, believe that disenfranchisement is a necessary measure against convicted felons, as these criminals have failed to comply with the very document that provides them with many freedoms. This article hopes to attract the attention of the general
First of all, a felon should not be allowed to vote because, their judgement is questionable. A felon is an individual who has committed a serious crime, typically involving violence, and usually serves more than a year in imprisonment. Children and mentally incompetent individuals are not allowed to vote due to their judgement being unquestionable (Shaw, Jerry 2015). A felon’s judgment is just as, if not more problematic. Not only is their judgement questionable, but individuals who commit felonies are typically untrustworthy.
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.
With millions of criminal convictions a year, more than two million people may end up behind bars(Gross). According to Samuel Gross reporter for The Washington Post, writes that also “even one percent amounts to tens of thousands of tragic [wrongful conviction] errors”(Gross). Citizens who are wrongfully convicted are incarcerated for a crime he or she did not commit. Many police officers, prosecutors, and judges are responsible for the verdict that puts innocents into prison. To be able to get exonerated many wait over a decade just to get there case looked at, not many are able to have the opportunity of getting out.
This preconceived notion could not be farther from the truth. In reality, these reform movements are idiotically placing a bandaid over the tremendous issue that the prison system is. An imbalance of reforms between women and men, unrestrained sexual abuse in women’s prisons, and tyrannical gender roles are just three of countless examples of how prison reform movements only create more misfortune and fail to provide any real solution to worsening prison conditions. Perhaps instead of conjuring up additional ideas on how to reform prisons, America’s so-called democratic society should agree upon abolishing prisons as a whole. This being said, it is crucial to identify ongoing issues in today’s society, understand how they contribute to unlawful behavior, and seek a solution.
I believe that restorative justice could be a good idea for the United States if it is used correctly. I think that if restorative justice is used correctly, it could really benefit everyone involved: the victim, offender, family, and the community. Some of the restorative justice ways can also help victims move past what has happened to them and live a more normal life again. I think restorative justice would also benefit the United States because it can help the offender have a better life after. I think that restorative justice needs to be used correctly because if it is not done right it could actually cause more harm.
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.