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Monday, March 07, 2005Roger Clegg (writing at the Corner) has thought on the disenfranchisement/reinfranchisement of felons released from prison. I think he's on to something:Felons shouldn’t have the right to vote restored on the day they walk out of prison; there should be an evaluation period of at least a year or two; and the restoration should depend on the felon’s good and bad deeds during that period, as well as on what crimes had been committed (murderers and traitors should have to wait longer than forgers and shoplifters), how many, and how recently. In sum, if a felon stays clean for some period of time after getting out of prison, and starts to give something back to his community, he could earn back the franchise, which could be formally restored at a courtroom ceremony similar to the naturalization of immigrants.What Roger may miss is how damn affirming this sounds. Ordinarily, mention of special ceremonies marking a released felon's progress would be met with scorn at NRO (I think; maybe they're as touchy-feely as I am and I missed the vibe). I think Roger's right about delaying reinfranchisement and tying it to a return to the community. Doing your time is important, but rejoining society is equally so. But how? One of the big problems with our penal system and social approach in general is that there are a lot of guys out there with the equivalent of Jean Valjean's yellow papers (read Les Miz yourself if you're curious). When they fill out forms, etc, ya know they done wrong. But it's harder to find out what they've done right, if anything. This would create an incentive for the truly penitent to work extra hard at staying clean. Imagine giving the guy who screwed up at an earlier time a chance to mark for the world that he was more or less fully a member of upright society again. And to note on the job app that yes he has a record but that he's doing much better now, thank you. Sounds like a good idea, not for the withholding of trust to someone who hasn't yet earned it, but for the restoring of trust to someone who has. 
posted by gbarto at 4:43 PM |
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