Will Bernie Sanders' Fight for Prison Voting Rights Help Democracy?

[thomhartmann]

Bernie Sanders is fighting for voting rights for prisoners and his efforts could help democracy all around us. The 2020 presidential contender believes that prisoners have to feel like they are part of their democracy and should be able to vote while they are incarcerated. Elizabeth Warren, also aiming for that 2020 spot wants prisoners to be able to vote as soon as they served their time. Currently many formerly incarcerated people lose their ability to vote in elections after being convicted of a felony. Both Warren and Bernie are steps toward giving the incarcerated a right to right.

Do you think prisoners should have voting rights restored?

[NateOfTheLivingDead]

1. Prison Rights

How can we expect prisoner conditions to be even the slightest bit improved when the people who experience them are either actively making it torture or unable to complain. If we as a society are going to have prisons we have to at least give them rights, though I would prefer greatly that no prison was left standing.

[Merlot]

2. Yes. No one's right to vote should be denied.

Maybe the only exception to that would be if someone voted twice or otherwise exploited the system. But, as we know, that kind of behavior is extremely rare.

[Honeycombe8]

3. My guess is that most of them never voted much, if at all.

They're criminals. They're not into registering to vote, paying taxes, etc.

But they should have a right to vote. And most would vote Democratic, because the Dem Party Platform is against capital punishment. Or at least, I think that's what Bernie is thinking. I agree, although I think most of them won't vote at all.

[Uncle Joe]

4. Which countries allow prisoners to vote?

The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which is the foundation of human rights treaties of the United Nations states in Article 21 that everyone can vote. This includes people in prison.

Later, this was expressed legally in Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which almost all countries support. See you-tube Prisoners Register to Vote in South Sudan.

(snip)

Our list of countries is the following: Albania, Austria, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Sudan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and Zimbabwe.

More other countries are moving in our direction. For examples, Vermont, Maine and Puerto Rico allow voting by people in prison in the United States while even China allows some prisoners to vote.

(snip)

https://www.quora.com/Which-countries-allow-prisoners-to-vote

The war on drugs is the modern day version of disenfranchising the people.

Non-violent drug offenders in prison have lost their right to vote, meanwhile the uber-wealthy white collar criminals which helped wreck the American economy none of which were ever prosecuted not only have the right to vote, but to continue in lobbying the government to continually weaken restrictions which would prevent them from doing it again.

Thanks for the thread thomhartmann.

[mysteryowl]

5. That's great. Plus, I remember one of Michael Moores recent films

had a segment where the politicians went into prisons to campaign for their vote!

[Uncle Joe]

6. In Norway prisoners take part in T.V. debates.

It was a stunning political debate that would be hard to imagine in Britain. But it was not so shocking in Norway, where a general election is taking place on Monday.

The topic was crime policy and – so far so normal – it featured a panel of politicians discussing the best ways to reduce crime. But the live TV show was set inside a high security prison, the audience consisted exclusively of guards and prisoners, with one inmate, Bjørnar Dahl, taking part in the panel alongside the justice minister and the deputy leader of the main opposition party.

"It was high time the politicians came here to talk about crime policy," explains Dahl, 43, a few days after the event. "This is about us, what happens in prisons and how we can return to society in a way that is beneficial to everyone."

Dahl, who is serving a five-year sentence for complicity in smuggling amphetamines, stole the show. When the representative from the populist Progress party, Per Sandberg, argued that there was an increase in criminality in Norway caused by gangs of Eastern Europeans organising beggars in the streets of Oslo, Dahl dismissed him as talking "crap" and asked him whether he had any knowledge of the situations the beggars were coming from.

(snip)

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2009/sep/10/norway-prisons-tv-election-debate

This is a good read.

[mysteryowl]

11. Excellent!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Should be exception that tRump Gang members permanently lose right to vote & bear arms

(have not watched video, but thanks for summarizing it)

[fescuerescue]

8. Vote from Prison?

Yea that sounds like a winning issue.

[hot2na]

9. I'm not against it but I have reservations.

Im definitely for quicly restoring prisoners rights after they have paid their debt to society. My feeling is that when you are a prisoner you lose many rights, one of them being the right to vote but there is a good moral argument to allow prisoners to vote, I understand that. There is also a good political argument against it. In this time of crisis we have to carefully pick and choose which battles we want to die on. Is this one of them? I don't think so.

[Uncle Joe]

10. There is a good political argument for it as well.

The U.S. has just shy of 2.3 million Americans behind bars.

A disproportionate number of them being minorities

They have family members on the outside no doubt in even greater numbers that want their loved ones voices to be heard in regards to a host of issues, whether it be humane prison reform, the elimination of for profit prisons; a 21st century version of slavery or programs on the inside and outside of prison that would make it easier for ex inmates to be productive law abiding members of society.

[markpkessinger]

12. If being separated for months or years from your loved ones and everything you care about . . .

. . . does not constitute "paying one's debt to society," what does? Is it really necessary to heap all of this other stuff on top of that?