Allowing incarcerated people to vote in the United States (U.S.) is a hot topic. Bernie Sanders helped to bring attention to this issue during his bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination with a lot of kickback. Allowing inmates to vote is a subject that is very contentious, with high polarization, and has a lot of background. Prisoner voting, or the lack thereof, is an essential part of our democracy. It’s obvious that we are stronger as a society when everyone’s voice is heard, so why shouldn’t theirs be too? This article helps to explain what prisoner voting is and why we need it.
It is important to understand the current state of how inmates vote in the U.S. Due to our federal system, it differs from state to state. Felony Disenfranchisement—the name for disallowing criminals to vote—is upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Constitution through the wording of Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment. It states that people can be denied their right to vote for their “participation in rebellion, or other crimes” and is used as the main legal justification for felony disenfranchisement. That means states can freely rule on disenfranchisement while being in line with the federal government.
As for how the states actually feel about disenfranchisement, it varies. Vermont and Maine have laws on the books that make it so all adult citizens can vote without question. Florida voted to re-enfranchise thousands of ex-convicts who have served their sentences and repaid any outstanding court fines and fees—however, some have argued the repayment part of that law defeats the purpose of enfranchising ex-cons since many owe thousands of dollars without their knowledge. The worst states in the union are Virginia and Kentucky, where ex-felons need to petition the court to regain their right to vote, which essentially guarantees failure. But what about Colorado?
In Colorado, convicts regain their right to vote once they are released back into society. Moreover, people who are currently awaiting their trial or anyone serving time for a misdemeanor conviction in a county jail are allowed to vote. This means that most people in Colorado jails are allowed to go to the polls.
When you become a citizen of the U.S., you can really never lose the privileges that come with citizenship. The U.S. was founded on pretty high standards that we have mostly failed to meet. Over the centuries, the nation has slowly started to embody those standards—with the process of gaining universal suffrage and the ongoing battle for equity, for example.
As a society, we have more or less decided that everyone deserves the right to vote, making it a major part of being a citizen. It’s very rare to meet anyone who argues that you shouldn’t vote. Therefore, if voting is a cornerstone of citizenship, and the majority of incarcerated people are citizens, would it not make sense to allow them to retain their rights? This would make sense from a societal standpoint. There is evidence that felony disenfranchisement leads to convicts feeling excluded from society and makes them more likely to recommit crime and return to incarcerated life. This is, of course, one of many problems within the American prison system.
The state of incarceration and correctional policy in the U.S. is atrocious. The American emphasis on punishment above reform is depressing and aggravating. There is a major problem when 82% of all inmates in the US are rearrested within 10 years of being released back into society. Moreover, the usage of private prisons leads to a concerning conflict of interest in society. How can these private prison companies be trusted to reform and support their inmates when they make money by keeping them in the system?
Our approach to incarceration is clearly damaging to society. It would be hard to argue that high recidivism, racial prejudice within the justice system and a stupidly complex pre-trial incarceration system are helping people reform and get their lives together. With so many problems, we need to start the process of reform from somewhere. That could be allowing incarcerated people to vote in all circumstances.
This could also have the potential effect of elevating the problems with the American prison system to the political forefront with inmates making up a larger part of the electorate. Through total enfranchisement, we hold ourselves closer to the ideals our country was founded on, while simultaneously advancing much-needed reform to the system: all of which would make the United States a markedly better country.
