Prisoners should get voting rights, says Mitchell

VOTING rights should be given to prisoners to help with their rehabilitation, according to a leading opposition politician.

Dublin Fine Gael Deputy Gay Mitchell said an opportunity exists in the quiet of a non-election period to consider reform, including extending voting rights to inmates.

Deputy Mitchell, also an MEP, admitted the subject of prison reform was not an easy one for politicians and that his suggestion may offend victims of crime.

“Politicians are fearful of raising the issue lest they come across as being unsympathetic towards victims or soft on crime,” he said.

However, Mr Mitchell added: “These people are deprived of their liberty, to deprive them of the right to vote as well is to dehumanise them.

“It also releases prisoners of responsibility. If prisoners are to take responsibility for their actions they should be encouraged to feel that they are still part of society and can be rehabilitated. To punish an individual for a criminal offence should not mean that person is also deprived of other rights automatically.”

Voting rights for prisoners was the subject of a Supreme Court judgment, after convicted arsonist Stephen “Rossi” Walsh, who was released from prison last month, took a case, claiming breach of constitutional rights.

While the High Court backed him, the higher court ruled some of the constitutional rights of convicted prisoners were necessarily suspended while they were lawfully detained. The judgment pointed out that remand prisoners were in a different position and may have a case.

“In times gone by it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to put prisoners on the electoral register and to allow them to vote,” he said.

“Prisoners can be transient; they can move from prison to prison, a sentence may end before an election is called and so on. However, registers are now updated to within a couple of weeks of an election. Furthermore, postal voting is more widely used and electronic voting may well become the order of the day.”

He said it would have to be organised so that all prisoners do not vote in the constituency in which the prison is located, but be offered a postal vote for the area where they last resided.

“Giving votes to prisoners would not only acknowledge their rights but it would also underline their responsibility for themselves and to society. Furthermore, it might encourage politicians to take a greater interest in penal reform and to invest greater effort in considering why it is that 75% of Dublin’s criminals come from five identifiable areas.”