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Should Prisoners Be Able To Vote Essay

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In the United States criminals are not permitted to vote in any kind of elections. Once prisoners get incarcerated they lose their self-determination and some of their rights. Prisoners are citizens too and even though they may have committed a felony, they are still citizens of their country. Some people think prisoners should not have the right to vote, but there are many others that think they should. I think they should be allowed to vote because they still are citizens and still have some rights. In the United States, there is an estimated number of two million people in prison, those inmates do not get to cast a vote in any elections (Lecture notes 2017). Prisoners should be able to have a say so in who run their country they live in, but they don’t think and it’s not fair. Imagine two million people not being able to vote because of their rap sheet. In my Introduction to Probation and Parole class, we had a debate on this topic and I found it to be a very interesting subject. Many students argued that it should be a certain time frame involved before rights are restored to prisoners. In addition, prisoners should be able to vote and sway the outcome of an election. I believe inmates would want the chance to vote in elections. Most places in the United States …show more content…

Giving prisoners the opportunity to vote is not any harm to others. As a result, Maine and Vermont are the only two states that allow ex-felons and prisoners to vote. In these states felons never lose their right to vote. The other states need to follow in their footsteps and come up with a new law for prisoners voting rights. All states should have the same law as Maine and Vermont because this right is fundamental to a democracy. Everybody in prison is incarcerated for many different reasons, some have major crimes, some have minor crimes and some are even falsely

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