Denying prisoners the right to vote is denying them access to society and their dignity, says Erwin James
Why shouldn't people in prison be allowed to vote? The only reason I could ever see for the blanket ban by the government was that prisoners were "undeserving" of that right. Indeed in its appeal of the European Court of Human Rights ruling, that the UK was in breach of Article 3 of the Human Rights Act in relation to prisoner voting, the government cited "tradition" and said, rather patronisingly, that many in society considered voting in our a democracy "a privilege." Accordingly, people who commit offences serious enough to warrant a period of imprisonment "cast aside that privilege" while they are inside. An easy argument against any section of society that we believe does not count.
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