Prisoners right to vote, positive outcome data?

Discussion in 'Human Science' started by alexb123, Feb 23, 2011.

  1. alexb123 The Amish web page is fast! Valued Senior Member

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    Does anyone know if there is a scientific link between prisoners right to vote and any tangible positive social outcome, such as lower rate of re-offending?
     
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  3. jmpet Valued Senior Member

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    Are you addressing the voting preferences of ex-cons because cons don't get the individual right to vote- the state does on their behalf. (The perfect state is a prison state where 70% of the population is prisoners. That state's governor would rule in perpetuum, as he already had 70% of the state's vote in his favor.)

    Are you asking "are ex-cons more ethical"?
     
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  5. alexb123 The Amish web page is fast! Valued Senior Member

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    I'm raising this as an issue as its current in UK. We currently do not give the right to vote to prisoners but we have been forced to by the European Court.

    I'm in a debate about it on another forum and people are calming that the right to vote will have a positive outcome on the prisoner, I just wondered if there was any proof of this position. I personally cannot find any data that supports it.
     
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  7. mathman Valued Senior Member

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    I am very surprised that any court outside UK can tell UK who is eligible to vote.
     
  8. alexb123 The Amish web page is fast! Valued Senior Member

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    The EU court is always enforcing laws here. Its like the central US government but for Europe.
     
  9. Read-Only Valued Senior Member

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    I can't imagine anyone thinking that a crook could make good decisions in a election - especially considering the poor life decisions they've obviously already made. :shrug:
     
  10. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Not scientific, but there might be a correlation between felons having the right to vote, and less restrictive marijuana laws.
     
  11. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    You night well find that you actually get better services for prisoners, better mental health, safer prisons ect and don't forget that being gay used to be a crime. Allowing prisoners to vote protects the population from political crimes
     
  12. Read-Only Valued Senior Member

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    Wow - that's a stretch!

    Personally, I feel that in most countries - especially the U.S. - we are already pampering prisoners. They get free food, clothing, medical care - including surgery - rec rooms, color TV, conjugal visits and many other niceties. Little wonder that some homeless guys have committed crimes in HOPE of being sent to prison.
     
  13. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Oh shut the hell up. Prison is still a prison, and it fucking sucks. If they couldn't do anything, they would go insane.
     
  14. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    Hmmm maybe if they were provided high quality mental health care they might not need to be locked up in the first place and prisoners are treated so well that the supreme court came down like a ton of bricks on California
     
  15. Read-Only Valued Senior Member

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    It needs to be 100 times WORSE! Not my fault they decided to take a trip that led them there. :shrug:

    "If you can't do the time..."
     
  16. Read-Only Valued Senior Member

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    Please tell us, O bleeding heart, just what do you know about U.S. prisons????
     
  17. pjdude1219 The biscuit has risen Valued Senior Member

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    you have to remember creating an enviorment in prison that helps ensure they will commit crimes when they get out of prison is part of the way the right wing tries to reinforce its ideology on crime
     
  18. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    I know that twice the US supreme court santioned California and the govonor specifically over the appalling treatment of prisoners in the state prisons. Further more on mental Health http://psychservices.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/60/6/761

    Lastly this thread isn't actually about the US. If we look at south Australia for instance we find that the state government thinks its okay to just jam more prisoners into over crouded prisons when there is only surposed to be one in mate per cell for there own saftey and to prevent suicides. Now sure some vote but only short term inmates who surprise surprise are in the better funded low security prisons. If all prisioners voted more funding would be put into what mattered in prisons, not colour tv, saftey and health care specifically mental health care
     
  19. Read-Only Valued Senior Member

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    Yeah - typical extreme left-wing nonsense. If prison life was WAY TOUGHER, not so many idiots would risk being put there! I's actually an all-expenses paid holiday for TOO many of them. They should have to suffer and endure every possible hardship so that they would not be so willing to risk going back there. Right now, they're not afraid of it at all. :shrug:
     
  20. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    I believe that in at least some states in the United States, ex-prisoners cannot vote. In other words, once you've been convicted of a crime and sent to prison, you can never vote again. I could be wrong about this. Is it true?

    I think the position in Australia is that you can't vote if you're in prison, but once you've done your time you can.

    A sensible system, in my opinion, would be one in which you can vote in prison provided that you are due for release during the term of the government you will be voting for, because you will then be affected by that government's policies as a free citizen. Otherwise, if you're in prison you shouldn't be allowed to vote, because you have lost some of the privileges of normal citizens by committing your crime.
     
  21. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    James once again that policy puts people at risk both in terms of allowing a corupt government to lock up those who will vote for the oposition and also because government actions still effect prisoners, even more so than the general public. A prisoner is compleatly dependent on the government for everything, only children in state care are more dependent and that means even if they are criminals we have a responsiblity to them. Especially if we want them to come out conected to sociaty rather than even more isolated and therefore likly to reofend
     
  22. WillNever Valued Senior Member

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    You would be shocked how many people in the prison systems are mentally ill. The large state mental hospitals of the 1950's were closed down with the advent of atypical antipsychotic medications and the major tranquilizers. The "street culture" that the large-scale deinstitutionalization gave birth to hasn't just faded away. They've just moved from one institution to another: mental hospitals to prisons.

    There's a good PBS Frontline documentary about the mentally ill in prison, called "The Released." You can view it online.
     
    Last edited: Feb 25, 2011
  23. Read-Only Valued Senior Member

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    That night be fine for your country. But it's quite different in the U.S. were there are really only 2 parties - so "opposition" makes no sense at all over here.

    But besides that, people are in prison because they've committed a crime against society (at least here where "opposition parties" are nonsense) and have thus CHOSEN to be enemies of society - so why should they have ANY privileges that honest, law-abiding citizens have, pray tell????:bugeye:
     

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