Should disenfranchising inmates of their voting rights be allowed?

As Banks (2013) points put, “according to the Sentencing Project, by 2008, all states other than Vermont and Maine prohibited inmates from casting a vote while incarcerated for a felony” (p. 215).  Now, all of those states that decided to prohibit convicted felons from casting a vote may have the lawful right to do because, as Banks (2013) also points out, under the U.S. Constitution, the Fourteen Amendment provided for disenfranchisement for participation in rebellion, or other crime” (p. 216); in addition, in 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court also interpreted the reference to other crime to allow disenfranchisement for any crime” (Banks, 2013, P. 216). However, even though it may be lawful for states to prohibit convicted felons from voting, I still don’t believe that it is ethical to deprive all convicted felons of their right to vote, especially if that person has paid his or her dues to society by serving their time in prison for that crime.

For example, As Banks (2013) further points out, “1 in 4 African American men are permanently disenfranchised in five states that deny the vote to ex-offenders” (P. 216). This basically means that even though these people have paid their dues to society they are still being written off from being able to have a say in the law and policy making like the rest of society; and, John Kleinig and Kevin Murtagh have made an interesting point about this. According to Banks (2013), they argued that “those affected by the decisions to disenfranchise ought to have some say in the making of those decisions” (P. 216); they are basically saying is that those felons that are disenfranchised should be able voice their concerns since they are ones that will be affected most, and the only way for them to be able to voice their concerns is by being able to vote.

I am not suggesting here that all felons should be able to vote because, as Kleinig and Murtagh also argue, “there may be some offenses that justify disenfranchising, such as electoral offenses and offenses representing rejection of the states authority” (Banks, 2013, p. 216). However, I believe that before these states start depriving every felon of their right to vote that they should first consider the type of crime committed because, as pointed out earlier, some offenses may not justify disenfranchisement or having a person banned for life from casting a ballot. For example, if someone gets caught with crack cocaine and served his time in prison, would it be fair or ethical for that person to be prohibited for the rest of his life from casting a ballot? I don’t think so.

Reference

Banks, C. (2013). Criminal Justice Ethics: Theory and Practice (3^rd ed.). 
    Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.