5 million voters between the 2012 and 2016 elections, which is twice the number of voters purged between 2008 and 2012. However, the first amendment insists that a person who is not able to practice certain laws and commits a crimes should never be denied other rights but those rights can be limited (Ruth 58). Essay contest 3: Is more oversight of the FISA court needed? I. OVERVIEW AND SUMMARY. Felons should be allowed to vote — but not until they have completed their sentences (including any period of probation or supervised release), paid at least a part of any court-ordered restitution to their victims, and proven they are now willing to abide by the rules implemented by society. Why Prisoners Deserve the Right to Vote. Everyone has a voice whether its frowned upon or not and that should not be taken away because of the path they chose. The first part of the article mainly focuses on the idea that the question of whether or not to renew one's right to vote is strictly political: if felons cannot vote, then voting is no longer representative. The Guardian, 2012, - -. Active participation of its citizens is of vital significance for a nation to claim it operates based on democratic values. Therefore, if one believes that prisons should focus on rehabilitating prisoners, then retaining voting rights is important. 13 Federal Judge Henry Wingate aptly described the political fate of the disenfranchised: [T]he disenfranchised is severed from the body politic and condemned to the lowest form of citizenship, where voiceless at the ballot disinherited must sit idly by while others elect his civil leaders and while others choose the fiscal and governmental policies which will govern him and his family. The author believes felons need to be deprived of their voting rights for life as a symbolic price they have to pay for violating certain social and legal norms.
And although well over a century has passed since post-Reconstruction states used these measures to strip African Americans of their most fundamental rights, the impact of felony disenfranchisement on modern communities of color remains both disproportionate and unacceptable..... is unwise, it is unjust, and it is not in keeping with our democratic values. According to the Georgetown Law Journal: Felon disenfranchisement has tremendous effects on the political landscape – leading researchers report that felon disenfranchisement "may have altered the outcome of as many as seven recent U. Scholarship Essay Contest Winner: Should Felons Have Right to Vote. S. Senate elections and one presidential election. " Download lesson plan and get started on KQED Learn. This result raises queries on the impacts of conviction with felony on perception of people's fundamental rights including voting rights.
We do not need these type of people voting for the people that run our country. This was our 5th essay contest and we were thrilled to receive 70 submissions. Why should felons be allowed to vote essay introduction. Remember, people convicted of felonies often lose other rights, like serving on a jury, owning a gun, getting welfare payments, and receiving financial aid for college. Social Work, 56 (1), 89-91. Most important, the Supreme Court decided that prisoners cannot have their citizenship stripped as a punishment for a crime. The questionnaire is designed to be objective. The racial impact of disenfranchisement laws is particularly egregious.
The vast majority of states prisoners cannot vote, yet they're often counted in the population for the legislative district of their prison, the main factor that determines a state's number of representatives and its presidential electoral votes. The motive to disallow felons to vote is as despicable an action as the resulting disenfranchisement of citizens. So, we're talking violent crimes like rape and murder. As a result, states that exclude felons from voting permanently, including Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Florida, are in violation of this amendment. Why should felons be allowed to vote essay in english. The article also notes that the policies of felony disenfranchisement Politico Magazine develop a cast system that is similar to the one during the very days (Brettschneider). Treatments of such send them back into the lifestyle they chose to walk away from. Every citizen of the US deserves the right to vote, and it should not be something that has the ability to be taken away.
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are given when a person is a citizen and it should stay that way. Of course, African-American men are known to lose most of the case hearings when it comes to justice. But in defending their own interests, prisoners could substantially improve the prison system itself. His executive action likely violates the state constitution as well as the previous requirement of a waiting period and individualized review of petitioners. Some people say that there is nothing wrong with voting, everyone should have the right to do it. Although he did not acknowledge this, Warren's insight shows us why ex-felons deserve the right to vote: If prisoners remain citizens and retain their civic status throughout their sentences, then it follows that prisoners should enjoy the most basic of their civil rights, the right to cast a ballot. · Given current rates of incarceration, three in ten of the next generation of black men will be disenfranchised at some point in their lifetime. Some lawmakers are working hard to make sure this is dealt with for future convictions. Felons should be able to vote. In two states, our data show that almost one in three black men is disenfranchised. Otherwise it lessens the control of the people therefore increasing the power of moneyed interests who are allowed to control legislators. I'm your smart assistant Amy! 2] Additionally, they found evidence of racial bias in the expansive probation and parole systems.
Ex-felons are people who made a mistake and have paid their debt. Choice does have consequences and that should be taken into consideration but it is unconstitutional to deny someone the rights given to them being a natural born and naturalized citizen. Their results indicated that FD laws had negative impacts on participation in voting exercise among blacks in comparison to whites. If these felons are at risk of recidivism, of which many of them are, then I don't quite think their judgment is valid enough to allow them to vote in elections that could affect the rest of society. In addition to states giving out felony charges for non-violent offenses, data proves that Black Americans are disproportionately targeted by an unfair criminal justice system. The exclusion of convicted felons from the vote took on new significance after the Civil War and passage of the Fifteenth Amendment to the U. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, JD Mar. Type your requirements and I'll connect you to an academic expert within 3 help with your assignment. Now, the only two states that one can vote while in prison are Maine and Vermont. Felons voting rights paper - Everyone Deserves a Second Chance By: Alayna Lyons Word count: 1,003 Why should someone spend the rest of their lives | Course Hero. Download this Sample. It is lawful to rehabilitate these people so they can be welcomed back into society and they should be placed in a program that can give them a sponsor, therapist, counselor as needed. Between January and March of 2019, more than 44% of formerly incarcerated Floridians who registered to vote were Black, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. In the United States, conviction of a felony carries collateral civil consequences apart from penal sanctions such as fines or imprisonment.
Ex-felons have already paid off their debt to society. In Georgia, for example, the report found that the state purged 1. "If anyone understands our country, it is founded on this vision that only certain people should have a voice. The author calls this denial of felons' franchise for life a "debt" they have to pay back to society for harming one, or more, of its members. Department of Justice, October 1996). Civil Death is Different: An Examination of A post-Graham Challenge to Felon Disenfranchisement under the Eighth Amendment. In forty-six states and the District of Columbia, criminal disenfranchisement laws deny the vote to all convicted adults in prison. It is unfair to place them in a category and reject them based on their past. 4 million African American men, or 13 percent of the black adult male population, are disenfranchised, reflecting a rate of disenfranchisement that is seven times the national average. 10 Ten of these states disenfranchise ex-felons for life: Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Virginia, and Wyoming. While Amendment 4 helped to restore the voting rights of millions in Florida, the state's requirement that former felons pay off their fees is still keeping hundreds of thousands of eligible voters from the polls. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness should not be taken lightly but the powers that be in the political arena and the criminal justice system often determine the life of a person after he or she has been convicted of a crime. Because of these laws, over 6. Video by: Alysha Webb.
Proponents of automatic restoration of voting rights often conveniently ignore the fact that felons lose many other civil rights as well, such as the right to sit on a jury, own a gun, obtain various professional licenses, or work as a public school teacher or law enforcement official in many states. 24/7 writing help on your phone. The most recent bill, she says, is one named in honor of John Lewis, the former Georgia congressman who died in July, and was a civil rights leader who marched for voting rights alongside other protesters in Selma in 1965. Here is some interesting data: "Released prisoners with the highest rearrested rates were robbers (70. This resulted in Black Georgia voters being 20% more likely to miss elections because of the long distance they had to travel to polls compared to White voters, according to an analysis by the Atlanta Journal Constitution. To vote is to participate in the country's democratic system to express opinions, express civic pride, to express a perception, which makes voting a form of speech that should be protected by the first amendment. 6%), motor vehicle thieves (78.
12 Ruling in a suit brought by McLaughlin challenging his disenfranchisement, the court ruled that Mississippis disenfranchisement provision did not apply to misdemeanor false pretense convictions. 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help you just now. In 2018, his grassroots efforts and years of community organizing paid off when he, along with other members of FRCC, got Amendment 4 passed in Florida, a law that helped restore the voting rights for over 1. Such crimes as murder and fighting, to which the white man was as disposed as the Negro, were significantly omitted from the list. "No state should ever force its citizens to choose between putting food on their kid's table and voting, or choose between paying rent or voting, " he says.
89-110) voting rights act, the denial of voting rights "undermines the democratic process and impedes rehabilitation thus debilitating both communities and individuals" (p. 89). The sample of the study will comprise 120 convicts of felony crimes and 300 people derived from the society within where the convicts live. Some will argue that it is enough to allow prisoners to regain their right to vote after release. According to the Atkins v. Virginia Supreme Court case: The 8th Amendment "succinctly prohibits excessive sanctions. " Voting is just giving your opinion. Write your middle paragraphs here: Conclusion: The conclusion summarizes the position you've taken. The participants are required to provide information on how they consider denial of voting rights to have influenced their fits with the society in which they belong. On the other hand, using the Fourteenth Amendment to justify the disenfranchisement of felons by states is ambiguous.
Unlike the approach deployed by Haselswerdt (2009), Bowers and Preuhs (2009) used "multilevel modeling and two separate individual-level data sets of those registered to vote to examine the effect of FD laws on the probability of voting" (p. 722). In some states, like Alaska, fines for a felony can be as much as $500, 000. Disempowering felons lead to another class of American citizens that are subjected to the country's laws but do not have a voice to express their views on how they are governed. Disenfranchisement in the U. is a heritage from ancient Greek and Roman traditions carried into Europe. Secondly, disenfranchising and disempowering ex-felons and prisoners have the effect of marginalizing and dehumanizing them.