Moreover, The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Rutgers Law School Constitutional Litigation Clinic have stated that “of the approximately 100,000 parolees and probationers subject to the state 's felon-disfranchisement law, more than 60 percent are African American or Latino, which the ACLU and Rutgers say is in large measure a consequence of racial profiling in the criminal justice system.” Inclusive to what The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Rutgers Law School Constitutional Litigation Clinic have stated, minorities like African American or Latino have been disenfranchised because of racial profiling. The fact that minorities are losing their voice and fundamental right show cases the fact that disenfranchise further institutionalizes racism in the U.S.. Therefore as a progressive nation, disenfranchisement should not be allowed because it promotes racism. Overall ex-convicts should be allowed to vote because post-incarceration voting restrictions are a violation of universally accepted human rights standards and disproportionately excludes
The need for more prisons is not really a need. I am not in favor of the there being more prisons built in this world. Serving time in prison is supposed to be as unpleasant as possible. I am also not in favor of prisoners being mistreated by other inmates and or facility staff members. There are prison guards that often beat inmates and rape female inmates. These issues are also widely ignored. Here is California, we have one of the 10 worst prisons in America. Speaking of Pelican Bay State Prison. This prison located in Crescent City, California, has 3500 inmates. Out of the 3500 prisoners, 1500 of them are in solitary. Of that 1500 in solitary, 500 of them have been in solitary in excess of a decade. Are we sure, building more
The recommendation calls for civil rights advocates to put mass incarceration on their agenda similar in the ways civil rights advocate’s affirmative action agenda. In my opinion, America is at a turning point where mass incarceration is slowly fading away with state lawmakers trying to cut prison cost. Being labeled as a felon is a stigma that can and will follow individuals for the rest of their lives. However, there is a change in the atmosphere and how society view individuals with felony records. Opportunities are slowly becoming available such as jobs and education, allowing these individuals to reenter society. It’s been 29 years since the War on Drugs campaign was announced and is not going to be overnight to reverse some of the effects of mass
The removal of this right dehumanizes prisoners. The streets of Texas are filled with blue or white collar criminals on bail or simply waiting for their sentence. Presently, if individual are found guilty of a crime, but they are not given a judicial sentence they are still allowed to vote; why should there be treated differently from convicted criminals who are locked up? However, allowing prisoners to vote while in prison would increase voting turnout and also Texas would gain the reputation of becoming one of the two states that allow prisoners to vote while in prison.
This preconceived notion could not be farther from the truth. In reality, these reform movements are idiotically placing a bandaid over the tremendous issue that the prison system is. An imbalance of reforms between women and men, unrestrained sexual abuse in women’s prisons, and tyrannical gender roles are just three of countless examples of how prison reform movements only create more misfortune and fail to provide any real solution to worsening prison conditions. Perhaps instead of conjuring up additional ideas on how to reform prisons, America’s so-called democratic society should agree upon abolishing prisons as a whole. This being said, it is crucial to identify ongoing issues in today’s society, understand how they contribute to unlawful behavior, and seek a solution. For instance, tackling issues such as health care and education, which provide severe inequality and adversity, would create an equal and safer society that would thus reject any need for criminal behavior, Davis herself suggests, “Rather, positing decarceration as our overarching strategy, we would try to envision a continuum of alternatives to imprisonment-demilitarization of schools, revitalization of education at all levels, a health system that provides free physical and mental care to all…” (Davis 107). It is clear that prisons and
Many speculations are made when it comes to allowing ex-felons or felons to vote. Felons should have the right to vote because everyone’s vote counts when it comes to electing a new president for the country. Felons are a part of the country they should be permitted to vote all the least. To some, felons or ex-felons should not be allowed the right to vote. This is because many people believe that felons have gone against their own country and defiled their country’s name. So the ones, who think felon’s or ex-felons should not vote, hold a grudge and begin to despise the idea of allowing a felon to vote. People want to continue with felon disenfranchisement and exclude felons from their own country. Although felons seem to have no morals. In all honesty, they do and they should be allowed at least one right that all Americans are able to share with one another.
There’s a multitude of things that need to be repaired in our system, and prison is one of them. Prison reform is an important issue because we need to take care of everyone and with the way we treat criminals, we do not see them as equal. We need to assess illegal acts correctly instead of trying to put people in jail for the rest of their lives. We also need to work more on how we try to rehabilitate people. Instead of barring convicts off from the rest of us, we need to teach them how to integrate, so they can live better lives than they did
Introduction: Day after day, millions of inmates sit in jail doing nothing productive with their lives. We are paying to house inmates that may not even have a good reason to be there. For example, drug offenders are being kept with murderers and other violent offenders. Over time, I can only imagine what it turns them into. We are a country that has the highest population of incarcerated humans. Unfortunately, we have begun to spend more on the prison system than educating the children of America. This very alarming and saddening. If we are not trying our hardest to make sure that children of America are learning to the best of their abilities, what is going to stop them from showing up in jail also.
In Adam Gopnik 's piece “Caging of America,” he discusses one of the United States biggest moral conflicts: prison. Gopniks central thesis states that prison itself is a cruel and unjust punishment. He states that the life of a prisoner is as bad as it gets- they wake up in a cell and only go outside for an hour to exercise. They live out their sentences in a solid and confined box, where their only interaction is with themselves. Gopnik implies that the general populace is hypocritical to the fact that prison is a cruelty in itself. The citizens of the the United States preach moral equality and the wrongdoings of their government, yet they fail to realize the horrors that occur when trapped in a cell the size of your bathroom. The article makes great points against the criminal- justice system and their cruel punishment towards prisoners, but the author has failed to persuade me because although their current state in the system might be wrong, it doesn 't take from the fact that they are convicted felons who need to do their time, even if
Throughout the recent years the majority of the able voting population are exercising their privilege to vote. Even during the presidential elections the voter turnout rate was 50% or less than that. The act of voting should be a personal responsibility of every citizen meaning it should be a obligation. But to specify on this statement, it should not lawfully required to vote because people also have the right not to vote too (and it would be weakening personal liberties) , but it should be a personal responsibility for citizens if they are to complain about how the government run rather than every citizen. A personal responsibility is when we are the cause of our own actions. Through voting we are responsible on who gets into office. Elected representatives are responsible more many choices
I believe that the the abolition of private prisons would be the best course of action to take. It is completely unconstitutional, from my perspective, to allow enterprises to make a profit off of prisoners, who are, in reality, just people who have made a mistake. It is a given that there are exceptions to this, but as Representative Ellison stated, “Incarceration should be about rehabilitation, not profit.” The fact that nothing has been done due to the clutch these corporations have on legislators is terrifying to me, and taking a stance against them would be sending a message to all wealthy businesses across the U.S., making it clear that the government can not be bought out. In a cost-benefit analysis, as the Justice is Not for Sale Act provides, it is much more fiscally responsible to invest in the rehabilitation of inmates than it is to hire private prisons.
Everyone has the right to vote, but many don’t take that opportunity. In the article “Should Voting Be Mandatory?” Eric Liu tells us that “mandatory voting would prompt more Americans to pay attention to the choices;” people usually never pay attention to their choices, and then complain about it later when everything has already happened. (Par 5). Mandatory voting means that every citizen of the age of 18 and above that has a right to vote must vote. The thing that confuses me the most is that the people from The Civil Rights Movement fought so hard for equal voting rights, but the modern American citizens’ still don’t try to vote even though now all the citizens’ can vote. If we are given a right that people died for, then we should take a stand and vote, so that elections can be fair. Americans’ should vote to voice their opinion on important matter to move the country forward. Voting have to be mandatory for all citizen.
United States citizens with a criminal background should be allowed to vote in their state of residency
What would you do if you were convicted as a felon for the rest of your life for a crime that you knew you were not guilt of ? Many people around the world are convicted as felons not because they are guilty but because they do not have the money or support to have the proper attorney to fight their case. The articles ‘ If You Can’t Follow Laws, You Shouldn’t Help Make Them’ by Roger Clegg and ‘ Felon Disenfranchisement Is Anti-Democratic’ by Janai S. Nelson have different viewpoints on whether convicted felons should be given their rights to vote again. Felons should not have their right to vote taken away because despite what they have been through they are no less human than a regular citizen and deserve to be treated like everyone else.
Does it make sense to lock up 2.4 million people on any given day, giving the U.S the highest incarceration rate in the world. More people are going to jail, this implies that people are taken to prison everyday for many facilities and many go for no reason. People go to jail and get treated the worst way as possible. This is a reason why the prison system needs to be changed. Inmates need to be treated better. The government treats prisoners as if they are nothing in this world. The U.S prison system needs to be reformed by building new and better prisons and making it more humane and fair.