Should Prisoners be Allowed to Vote?

[Daltron]

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/02/09/article-1355376-0D1C2646000005DC-838_306x423.jpg

Prisoners are banned from voting in elections in places such as the Czech Republic, Estonia, the United Kingdom, Russia. Other countries such as Australia have limitations ie. must be less than 3 years sentence to vote.

Is there a violation in terms of human rights to deny an individual to vote especially when many legal cases are based on the balance of probabilities and there is not a 100% verdict than people have committed crime x y and z, so should they be restricted in terms of access to voting?

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Should prisoners be allowed to vote?
What are your thoughts?

[-:Undertaker:-]

It's a violation of a 'human right' (if you believe in such a concept, I do not) or liberty (which I do believe in) to be placed in prison in the first place in that you are being held against your will. Do we support prison? Yes, because we realise that in order to maintain public order through punishment as well as punish those who have committed acts of evil, they must have certain liberties removed that a law abiding normal subject or citizen would have.

So no, prisoners shouldn't be allowed to vote.

[GommeInc]

It's tedious that the ECHR is putting forward the argument that it violates a right despite the right to liberty, family life and a multiple of other rights are temporarily disposed of when someone commits a crime, and I personally think that voting is less important than these rights, so not voting is the least of their concerns anyway. Voting isn't even what makes us human nor does it effect how we live. It's such a tedious argument that it seems a waste of time to go on about it (or the ECHR to keep pestering Parliament about it). I think we'd be long out of the ECHR before prisoners earn the right - Labour ignored it and now the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are ignoring the debate. In fact, it would be nice if the British Government made their own "Bill of Rights" which are of relevance to us - we did a reasonably good job prior to the Human Rights Act 1998 at protecting civil liberties, we do not need external intervention at something we've been more than capable at doing, even long before Europe was at war with each other which brought about the ECHR anyway.

[Landon]

I don't think prisoners should be able to vote. They have broken the law, and have done most likely a serious crime.
I do think, though, that if it weren't a murder, something very light, they might be able to vote under credits and good behavior.

Just my thoughts.