Should Prisoners Be Allowed To Vote Analysis

Rules structure society to protect law-abiding citizens from the ones who break the laws. When one goes to prison, one loses their rights as a citizen. Depending on the crime, once a person is free from prison, that person becomes a citizen again. Patrick Buchana and Dean Karemera discuss whether or not a prisoner should have the right to vote in their article, “Debate: Should Prisoners Be Allowed to Vote?” Elizabeth Hull discusses if prisoners should have the right to vote once they have completed their sentence in her article, “Felons Deserve the Right to Vote”. Also, in yet another article, “Florida’s Former Felons” Elizabeth Hull discusses if prisoners should have the right to vote once released from prison. To begin with, prisoners should not have the right to vote in prison because they have lost their citizenship rights temporarily. As a law, once a citizen is in …show more content…
Many citizens may agree that “if competence and good moral character were prerequisites, the number of individuals eligible to vote surely would plummet” (Hull, p.52). Many criminals that are convicted of a crime pay their debt to society and are released from prison on good terms. These individuals should gain the right to vote. Once one becomes a citizen, one deserves and gains citizenship rights. After one is free from prison, they have citizenship rights. This may be true, but once they do their time they amend their rights. For example, a police officer would not keep fining one who has paid one’s own fine for speeding. Once a crime has been amended it has been “forgiven”. Some citizens feel that if an ex-convict loses the right to vote “it creates a huge pool of political outcasts” (Hull “Florida” 17). Therefore, a state should not take away the right to vote from one who has paid one’s own debt to