Both ex-felons and those currently incarcerated deserve the right to vote. Currently, only two states allow prisoners and those released from prison to vote: Maine and Vermont.
The majority of states either deny all people with felonies the right to vote — or at the very least, require strict guidelines on who is able to regain this freedom after prison. The United States not only has the highest per-capita incarceration rate, but also the largest prison population internationally.
As of 2016, 2.2 million Americans were incarcerated, and that number has surely risen since. Additionally, every 1 in 51 people were on parole or probation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics in 2013. That is an astounding number of individuals who have lost one of their key rights as citizens of this country. In the 1958 Supreme Court case, Trope v. Dulles, Justice Earl Warren wrote, “citizenship is not a right that expires upon misbehavior.” If prisoners do not lose their civic status, then why are they not granted their basic civil rights, such as that to cast a ballot?
Prisoners are expected to become average citizens after serving their sentences, including duties such as obtaining a job and paying taxes like the rest of society. Prison reform programs have been initiated throughout prisons across the country as a way to aid in the transition from prison to society. These programs include, but are not limited to, programs that provide educational opportunities, employment training, business classes and many more. If these reforms are put into place to help prisoners become like “ordinary people,” why alienate them by stripping them of their right to vote?
The most common argument against ex-felon voting is that they should not be allowed the right to have a say in society — but does that not contradict the entire point of these programs? Many are afraid of what ex-convicts might do once they are released, but where is the harm in voting? Where is the harm in caring about the state of politics, in trying to make a difference, one voice at a time? There are endless possibilities of what they can do after prison, both beneficial and harmful, but there is nothing dangerous about giving citizens the right to vote.
By refusing to allow the large and growing population that is America’s incarcerated and ex-convicted, we are not just diminishing the number of voices heard, but also the diversity in who we believe is worthy of hearing. Felonies do not strip people of their humanity. Prisoners are still people and they deserve as much of a voice as any other citizen of the United States. How can we possibly expect anyone to change for the better if we are constantly scrutinizing and dehumanizing them?
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