Prisoners should have the vote
The Guardian Tuesday 30 March 2010
Over 70,000 people could be unlawfully disenfranchised in the general election. Britain is one of the few countries left in Europe with a blanket ban on sentenced prisoners voting. This is despite the European court of human rights first ruling the ban unlawful six years ago today, on 30 March 2004.
An amendment has been tabled to the constitutional reform and governance bill in the Lords to allow sentenced prisoners to vote. The case for reform is unequivocal. In a democracy, voting should be seen as a right and positive civic duty, not as a privilege. The Prison Governors' Association points out that barring prisoners from voting hampers rehabilitation. Disenfranchisement of prisoners derives from the Forfeiture Act and its outdated 19th-century notion of civic death, a punishment entailing the withdrawal of citizenship rights. It has no place in a modern democracy and is legally and morally unsustainable.
On 4 March the committee of ministers at the Council of Europe required the UK authorities "to rapidly adopt measures, of even an interim nature, to ensure the execution of the court's judgment before the forthcoming general election". Governors confirm that granting prisoners the right to vote would neither threaten public safety nor be difficult to implement, given arrangements for postal voting. The Electoral Commission has set out for the Ministry of Justice a straightforward way for prisoners to take part in the election.
Lord Ramsbotham
Lord Pannick QC
Lord Fellowes
Rt Rev James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool
Juliet Lyon CBE, Prison Reform Trust
Shami Chakrabarti CBE, Liberty
Frances Crook OBE, Howard League for Penal Reform
Bob Cummines, Unlock
John Hirst
Helen Boothman, AMIMB
Lady Edwina Grosvenor
Dame Audrey Glover DBE, CMG
Alison Hannah, Penal Reform International
Nuala Mole, Aire Centre
UPDATE: Just done a pre-recorded interview on this subject for BBC Radio 4 The World At One.
Listen Again here. Fastforward 20 minutes, it's the second to last item and lasts for just over 6 minutes.
Related content: Letter to Michael Wills MP, Minister of State for Justice
A mixture of law, politics, autobiography and humour. Once described as "The Devilish Advocate" (Guardian), I do have the ability to provoke a response. Sometimes it comes from someone who uses a thought process, and sometimes from jerks usually associated with the knee.
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