I was actually talking to someone about this earlier today. I know a number of people who have been convicted of felonies that are relatively minor in the grand scheme of things.
While part of this is clearly related to what I believe is an imbalance in how drug-related and some other crimes are treated compared to violent crimes (possession with intent to sell is a felony, while manslaughter is a misdemeanor!), and to what I believe is an imbalance in how black and Hispanic people are charged in drug crimes compared to white people, that doesn't, to me, mean that a felon doesn't deserve the same rights as everyone else even if that imbalance were righted.
So you're dealing with two issues. One is inequity in our criminal justice system. That needs to be dealt with. The other is whether felons who have served their sentence should be held to a different standard/given the same rights as people who have not been convicted as a felony, even if the playing field is in all other ways equal (which it is not). While I do think it is all right to have a different set of expectations for someone who has been convicted of a felony in terms of things like checking in with a parole officer, I think taking away rights is not. I don't understand why felons can't vote. The only group of citizens whom I think should reasonably be barred from voting are people who have actually participated in election-related crimes. I'm a big believer than the punishment should fit the crime, so: if you tamper with an election, your right to vote could reasonably be taken away, and I wouldn't object. However, why someone who was caught selling marijuana shouldn't be allowed to tick off a ballot eludes me: selling drugs does not in any way make me doubt someone's ability to participate in the electoral process. The fact that certain groups in the US who are already consistently and systemically intimidated out of voting are disproportionately affected by this disenfranchisement means that maintaining that disenfranchisement for any reason is essentially a form of election fraud.
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Date: 2010-11-02 08:31 pm (UTC)While part of this is clearly related to what I believe is an imbalance in how drug-related and some other crimes are treated compared to violent crimes (possession with intent to sell is a felony, while manslaughter is a misdemeanor!), and to what I believe is an imbalance in how black and Hispanic people are charged in drug crimes compared to white people, that doesn't, to me, mean that a felon doesn't deserve the same rights as everyone else even if that imbalance were righted.
So you're dealing with two issues. One is inequity in our criminal justice system. That needs to be dealt with. The other is whether felons who have served their sentence should be held to a different standard/given the same rights as people who have not been convicted as a felony, even if the playing field is in all other ways equal (which it is not). While I do think it is all right to have a different set of expectations for someone who has been convicted of a felony in terms of things like checking in with a parole officer, I think taking away rights is not. I don't understand why felons can't vote. The only group of citizens whom I think should reasonably be barred from voting are people who have actually participated in election-related crimes. I'm a big believer than the punishment should fit the crime, so: if you tamper with an election, your right to vote could reasonably be taken away, and I wouldn't object. However, why someone who was caught selling marijuana shouldn't be allowed to tick off a ballot eludes me: selling drugs does not in any way make me doubt someone's ability to participate in the electoral process. The fact that certain groups in the US who are already consistently and systemically intimidated out of voting are disproportionately affected by this disenfranchisement means that maintaining that disenfranchisement for any reason is essentially a form of election fraud.