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Pros And Cons Of Felons

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Many advocates for felons regaining voting rights believe the disenfranchisement of these felons is because of their race. Hull (2006) states, “according to U.S. government statistics two-thirds of those imprisoned are members of racial and ethnic minorities” (para. 7). These statistics show that more minorities are incarcerated than Caucasian people, but that doesn’t mean that it’s because of their race. For example, statistics also show that more men are incarcerated than women, so does that mean that it’s because of their sex? Of course not, the fact of the matter is that men commit more crimes than women because men are typically more aggressive, the same reasoning applies to race. Minorities typically commit more crimes than those …show more content…

Feser gives advocates this scenario that debunks the belief of those who view it as double punishment: On this view, the ex-con pays his debt to society by doing time and should suffer no further punishment. But this begs the question at issue: should a felon lose his vote as well as spend time behind bars? Few people would say that the drunk driver sentenced by a judge to lose his driver’s license and to pay a hefty fine is punished twice. (Feser, 2005, para. 7) By serving their time, felons have supposedly paid their debt to society. Felons aren’t allowed to own a firearm or serve on juries, so it doesn’t seem right that they would be allowed to vote. Being convicted of a felon has everlasting consequences whether these advocates like it or …show more content…

They believe that since the system is directly affecting them then they should have a say in who runs it. For me, by saying this they are completely disregarding most of their other arguments. Most of their arguments lead back to them saying that since felons have served their time, they’ve turned over a new leaf and deserve to start fresh, by starting fresh they mean for the felons to have voting rights. Conor Clarke and Greg Yothers (2008) maintain “that since [prisoners] are especially subject to government power, [they] are especially in need of voting rights” (para.1). But, by saying there’re still affected by the government even while incarcerated, they make their arguments about inmates having a new lease of life meaningless. It’s not the government’s fault that they were convicted of a crime and sent to

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