Even if not while they are in prison, definitely once they have served their time. Absolute bullshit that you can never vote again once you've done time. (Federal crimes I mean)
this post was submitted on 03 May 2024
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Bruh, the democracy in my country is a joke and even we have votes on prisons, what the hell? I thought this was standard.
I thought this was standard.
I think a lot of Americans don't share that belief.
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If one is a citizen of a country the right to vote should be the same as the right to breathe air.
The only qualification should be citizenship.
So I can't breathe air if I'm not a citizen? Guess I'll die
Correct. Go breathe air in your own county. /S
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Who better and more motivated to effect the law than those who have been wronged by it?
BuT WhaT iF tHey VOTe To FRee aLL pRiSONErs???
And to your second point: if people were trying to improve prisons, they wouldn't be so damn lucrative
They don't have the right proportion to do that. And if they did, then maybe it would actually be a valid vote
It's a seriously bad idea to remove imprisoned people's rights even though point of prison is to remove rights to freedom of movement.
Why it's bad is because if you remove voting or communication rights then it opens the door to removing those rights with laws targeted at a minority. If a certain minority votes against you you can find a behavior in than group and make it illegal.
Black people in the US were especially targeted with this because of the War on Drugs as an example.
This is one of those posts that make me think "but that's already how it works" and then I remember "oh right, America".
You're correct, but I don't think this is an actually unpopular opinion, is it?
If you live in the United States, I think think answer to that depends on which state you live in.
I can't remember where I heard this originally, but I subscribe to the belief that you need to maintain the rights of criminals (like voting) to prevent tyranny.
Because if being labeled a criminal is enough to remove your rights, a corrupt government need only declare you one to take your rights away.
It used to be criminal in some parts of the USA for black and white people to intermarry, for example. Imagine losing your right to vote because of who you married.
I mean, it's true. That's how we still have slavery.
I'd guess it's probably from a curated Tumblr post which I'll paraphrase:
"Every criminal deserves rights"
"Except pedophiles, they're true scum"
"Yes, also pedophiles"
"You're a piece of shit"
"If pedophiles don't have rights, then everyone they want to not have rights will be declared a pedophile. For example, transgender people, queer people, liberals, and more have all been accused of preying on children"
"Oh."
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It was Nelson Mandela:
A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.
To be honest I was shocked when I learned about this stripping of rights when you are imprisoned in the US. It is literally a tool of tyranny to lock people up in order to silence them.
Woah so that's where jkr stole that quote from always thought dumbledore had really good quotes and now i know jkr must've stolen most of em .
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there are states that have government employees who engage with prisoners and get them back into a eligible voter status. sadly not all of the USA believes in Democracy.
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But if you let prisoners vote, you'd have to let the black ones vote too. And if you did that, there'd be next to no point in locking them up in the first place.
Nex you let women vote. You never know. Wait can women vote in america? How progressive
Not true! You’d still have the benefit of slave labor!
True enough. Round em' up boys!
Wait, aren't we already doing that?
Totally reasonable and normal opinion. Possible in many countries
There would have to be a ton of work involved to prevent the prisons (being private entities) from attempting to control\influence the votes.
I’m not sure I follow. The way I read this was “we should remove constitutional rights from certain people because of the outsized influence certain companies might have on them.” Was that the correct way to read this comment? If so, do you also advocate for the abolition of social media, print journalism, radio, any kind of advertisement, any gathering, and television?
The vast majority of prisons are not private
It's not much more than for regular people to vote. Electoral commission goes to the prison and they vote one by one.