...Felony Disenfranchisement was established during the founding of our democratic nation. Wealthy male property holders granted themselves the right to vote, while disqualifying women, African Americans, illiterates, the poor and those convicted of felonies from voting (Mauer, 2011). All have regained their fundamental civil right to vote with the exception of felons. An estimated 5.85 million Americans temporarily or have permanently lost their voting rights as a result of a felony conviction. Out of those 5.85 million Americans, 45% have already completed their sentence (Uggen, Shannon, & Manza, 2010). It is evident that the disenfranchisement of felons is rooted in racial discrimination, based on flawed policy and rationale, and is fundamentally unconstitutional. Therefore, felons, whether incarcerated, paroled, on probation or released, should maintain their civil right to vote....
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...Felon Voting In the United States, people convicted with felony are barred from participating in voting in any election. According to Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (2008), it is estimated that about five million felony victims have been denied this chance, a condition referred to as disenfranchisement. Every state in America has its own law concerning disenfranchisement. Felons are only allowed to vote in Maine and Vermont states (Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, 2008). Some states demand that felon re-enfranchisement should be enhanced to allow felons who have already completed their sentence to participate in elections. They argue that their privileges and rights should be restored by allowing them to cast votes. According to them, blocking felons from voting is undemocratic, unfair, racially, and politically motivated while opponents state that felons have poor judgment, and should not be entrusted with this fundamental right. This research paper gives a clear summary of two articles concerning their position on felon voting. The first article is Liberal and republication argument against the disenfranchisement of felons by Jeffrey Reiman, and the second one is Locked out: felon disenfranchisement and America democracy by Jeff Manza and Christopher Uggen. Both articles indicate that disenfranchisement of criminal offenders who are already through with their sentences is ethically and morally wrong. The two authors lobby for the enfranchisement...
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...rehabilitation often have conflicting approaches to dealing with reprimands in the legal system. Rehabilitation seeks to remove the person from their environment so they can learn how to be a productive citizen. Punishment attempts to teach a lesson though the removal of freedoms and the restrictions of rights. Felony disenfranchisement, where a convicted felon is banned from voting in any elections for the rest of their lives, is one of the more controversial punishments. The use of felony disenfranchisement...
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...vote because they have been convicted of a felony. (Felon Voting ProCon.org, 2013) Out of those 5.85 million people convicted of felonies, how many could be wrongly convicted? Instead of taking away voting rights from all felons and ex-felons, let’s focus more on how to still give these people rights as United States Citizens, not making them feel like they are completely cut off from society. One in every 40 Americans stand to become disenfranchised even after they have served their time in jail. After serving 40 long wrongly convicted years in jail, Walter Lomax has spent two-thirds of his life in the Maryland prison. “The emotion in his voice changes as he takes a pause, attempting to put into words how it felt to exercise the right after serving 40 years, wrongly convicted, in a Maryland prison.” (Taylor, p. A.1) How can we as a society agree that this is the right thing to do? Though some people feel that the disenfranchisement of felons is the right thing to do, there are others that believe that the disenfranchisement of ex-felons who have served their time and have completed their sentences is “morally wrong”. (Reiman, p. 3) As stated on page three in the article “Liberal and Republican Arguments against the Disenfranchisement of Felons”, there are two different lines of theories being the lines of classical liberal and classical republican. The liberal argument for the disenfranchisement of convicted felons states that the criminals violate the social contract...
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...Should Felons be Allowed to Vote? 1 In this essay, I will be in support of felons having their voting rights restored after serving their prison sentences and completing all terms and conditions of probation or parole successfully. My reasons for supporting the restoration of felons’ voting rights are because voting is a “right” under the Constitution of the United States. After a person serves their prison sentence; some ex-felons have the ability to be and remain rehabilitated and live productive lives. Also, the laws are changing making it easier to be charged as a felon. Most of the people that are against felons voting claim that they make bad judgments because they do not abide by the laws. Also, convicted felons continue to violate the laws and further prove they are irresponsible, and felons need to be taught a lesson about breaking the laws (“ProCon.org”). Does a person lose citizenship when convicted of a felony? Citizens convicted of a felony but who have completed their sentencing and parole requirements should enjoy all of the same rights as other citizens. I refute disenfranchisement because it is not a novel practice. Its roots are historic. There have been numerous legal challenges to disenfranchisement laws, and courts have found the practice to be unconstitutional. In these legal challenges, one argument, which courts have never fully examined, however, is that disenfranchisement is linked to...
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...The disenfranchisement of ex-convicts is a very important issue. African Americans make up a significant amount of those being denied their rights to vote because of a felony conviction. Although many people believe that ex-convicts should not be allowed to vote, it is an unfair policy because the system by which felons can reacquire their civil rights is a flawed one, the disenfranchisement policy is particularly biased against African Americans, and the act of withholding voting rights defies American democratic principles. One major way that the system by which felons can reacquire their civil rights is flawed is expressed by the Tampa Bay Times reporter Steve Bousquet, who asserts that “to regain those rights, a felon must petition the governor and Cabinet for...
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...Should Convicted Felons Be Allowed To Vote? For many years felony disenfranchisement has cost convicted felons their right to vote. This law caused 5.3 million people were denied the right to vote in 2008. Everyone should have a voice and because they made a mistake you can’t just take it away. Ten thousand people are wrongly convicted every year; that is 10,000 voices taken away every year. “When people vote, they feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves. “(Justice) So would you like someone to take your voice? Should felons have the right to vote? Convicted felons should not have their right to vote taken away. The Constitution of United States of America in the first three words state,” We the People “. Taking the voice...
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...Being an Ex-felon in America Jay Wainwright Axia College of University of Phoenix Being an Ex-felon in America There are many people in society who are still being treated unfairly. There is still a major disconnect from mainstream society and ex-felons. There are many people with opinions on how to help the ex-convict to become a productive member of society, except for the voice or better said by the rhetoric of the ex-felon, the one who has paid his or, her debt to society by doing harsh and terrible prison time. Yes, ex means nothing when it comes to a person from a criminal past. Everyone has already heard the rhetoric about “everyone is created equal” but, this rhetoric has been tested before and still being tested today. This is just some of the topics that will be presented in this paper. Ex-felons are underprivileged and treated unfairly because people of society are unforgiving and ex-cons are barely given any opportunities to change. Some ex-felons are underprivileged in many aspects of society due to one’s criminal past or better said mistakes. Ex-felons are not permitted to obtain a firearms license after one is convicted of a felony. One cannot conceal a firearm to protect one’s place of residence and most places ex-felons live, a firearm is needed. There are burglars everywhere but majority of them live in the same places as an ex-felon. How are ex-felons supposed to protect his or, her home...
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...Mohamed Ismail Professor Ann Cohen POLSC 110 02 December 2013 Our government regularly passes laws that affect everyone in our society, supposedly protecting our rights and taking into account the views of all of its citizens. Citizens express their views by voting for representatives to speak on their behalf or by joining interest groups. In our current voting system however, many groups of people are barred from voting, yet they are forced to abide to the laws passed by our government. Whether it is because they are undocumented immigrants, felons, or even because their state requires tests that they are incapable of passing, these people are being unfairly represented in our government. Although our constitution provides the framework for our voting system, it leaves the right to the states to establish who is able to vote and who isn’t. In order to prevent this inequality in the voting process, states should be required to share the same voting requirements and it should be easier for immigrants to gain their citizenship so they as well can have a say in government. The American constitution established the framework of the voting system that we use today in our modern society. Voting first started in 1776, during the time of the colonies and the revolution and only white male Protestants were able to vote. At the time when George Washington was elected President, only 6% of the current population was eligible to vote, so voting was very restricted. In 1866 the...
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...They did their time, paid their fines, and stood in voter registration lines only to be denied. These American citizens, who are also felons, are being denied the right to vote due to disenfranchisement laws. In the United States, “Two states, Vermont and Maine, allow convicted felons to vote while in prison. Nine states permanently restrict certain felons from voting (until and if granted the state governor's pardon) even if those people have served their prison sentence, parole, probation, and paid all fines. The remaining 36 states fall somewhere in between,” (ProCon.org, 2009). Felons should have the right to vote, as they have paid or are paying their debt to society, and the millions of missing felony votes impact all of us. How many times have you voted in a close race and your candidate did not win? Imagine if just a fraction of the felons that share your views were allowed to vote just like they are allowed to pay taxes. Millions of Americans in our republic are not represented at every election due to non-felony voting, which can be said to be undemocratic, and as such, felons should be allowed to vote in all states. “The legislature has sent a clear message that voting is a fundamental right that should not be stripped away from people who are working, paying taxes and contributing to their communities, “said Steven Brown, Executive Director of the ACLU of Rhode Island. According to the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, the right of citizens of the...
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...This causes exacerbates the perceived injustice for African Americans in the justice system. It is true that this disenfranchisement applies to felons regardless of race. However, the sheer volume of minorities in the criminal justice system makes this an issue of racial representation in American politics. In fact, as George Fletcher argues, the very fact that this policy has such discriminatory effects may be grounds for the suspension of all state laws disenfranchising felons. He states, “The Fifteenth Amendment prohibits the states from denying the right to vote on the basis of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude”…It might be possible…to declare the disenfranchisement unconstitutional in those states where its application had a discriminatory effect on black voting rights.”(Fletcher 1902) Though the constitutionality of denying felons to vote hotly debated, it is not inherently a racial issue. Nonetheless, factoring in the gross overrepresentation of minorities among those convicted felons, it becomes apparent that this practice restricts the voting rights of certain minorities. Nation wide, 14% of voting aged black men are barred from voting due to felony convictions, in southern states, these numbers can rise as high as 29%. In disenfranchising minorities, the American justice...
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...Also if felons should be allowed to vote in prison. The typical voting age is eight teen. Nearly six million Americans cannot vote due to disenfranchisement laws. I think that the age for voting should stay eight teen. Also felons should not be able to vote because they can’t be trusted. Do you think that the age should stay at eight teen? The twenty sixth amendment ratified in 1971 establishes that eight teen year olds as the minimum voting age for both state and federal elections. Did you know that the original thirteen American colonies mostly set the voting age at twenty one reflecting the British law? Only seventy nine...
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...Secondly, the Tuesday voting day also contributed immensely to low turnout of voters because many go to work since no holiday is declared and is not on a weekend. Voluntary Voting, being a condition where voting is not made compulsory, leaving people to decide whether to vote or not is a plague contributing to low turnout. Many Democratic Nations report good turnout of voters because they made voting compulsory in which a failure could be termed as disobedience to state law and could result in some level of punishment or denial of certain benefits. Felon disenfranchisement, a situation in which our citizens in correctional facilities are not allowed to vote also affects voters’ turnout. It is on record that America is the only democratic nation in the world that does not allow Felons to vote. In order to increase voter turnout, voting should be made compulsory, voters registration made automatic, days of election made public holidays and Felons allowed to...
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...The Singh Memo William Bower CRJS 205 26 Aug 2015 Abstract Crimes are classified in two main groups. Felonies, and Misdemeanors. Although both are a crime, and both have some serious implications, the consequences for felonies usually linger far beyond arrest and sentencing, and are often referred to as an “Invisible Sentence”. Introduction Crimes are broken down into felonies (serious offenses) and misdemeanors (lesser minor offenses), and while both may carry incarceration and fines, they also carry additional consequences that go beyond what most people know happens. While we strive to be a “more perfect nation” as the Constitution so eloquently describes America, we also have placed incredible burdens on our populace who has strayed from the path. Felonies and Misdemeanors When asked “what is the difference between a felony and a misdemeanor?” The probably most answered reply is “A felony is a crime in which the maximum sentence is punishable by more than a year in prison, a misdemeanor is a crime which the maximum punishment is up to a year in a jail.” While perfectly true, and factual, the consequences of both felonies and misdemeanors, are a little more encompassing. According to Black’s Law Dictionary a felony, at its simplest, is defined as “Generally an offense punishable by death or imprisonment in penitentiary” (Black, 1968). In most jurisdictions that definition is expanded to something that may read “a crime that carries a maximum...
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...Behrens, and Manza 2). It had become a widespread practice within the United States that disenfranchised a good deal of citizens. One major motivator for these laws was race: “In 1850, 11 of the 32 existing states disenfranchised for a felony conviction. In contrast, by the time of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, 28 of the then 38 states had done so...States’ attempts to undermine the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments by effectively preventing African Americans from voting have been well documented” (Uggen, Behrens, and Manza 8) It is not a coincidence that these laws were more heavily adopted after voting was extended to blacks. The widespread adoption after the Civil War was racially motivated. Like the previous laws, these felony disenfranchisement laws were a thinly veiled way of denying blacks the right to vote in the South in any way they could at the time. Even if the laws weren’t racially fueled, it still disenfranchises voters for simply committing a crime. Committing a crime does not cause a person to revoke his rights as a citizen of the United States. Therefore, it should not force him to revoke his right to...
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