Convicted Felons Essay

Should Convicted Felons be Entitled to More Rights?

Everyday thousands of individuals are incarcerated into the United States prison system. As soon as these jailed individuals start their term, they give up multiple rights they had prior to being convicted. Each convicted felon is treated the same regardless of the crime they committed and lose the same amount of rights. The amount of constitutional rights taken away from convicted felons should depend on the severity of their crime. Some may argue that all are seen equal under the eyes of the law and a criminal is a criminal. However, a person imprisoned for money laundering shouldn’t lose the same amount of rights as a serial killer. Many people make mistakes

It’s understandable for rights such as jury service to be revoked since a former felon may be biased while deciding or may feel uncomfortable taking part in putting someone in prison. However, the right to travel abroad being taken away is excessive and is an example of the government having too much influence in the everyday lives of their citizens. For example, if a person convicted of a nonviolent felon has completed their sentence, there should be no restriction on them wanting to take a vacation. Felons still have the right to carry and obtain visas and passports, but if they are restricted traveling then there isn’t a point for them to even own one. Also, many former felons want to restart their life and try and salvage and make the most of their lives prior to being incarcerated. Who gave the government the authority to take away a luxury such as the pleasure of relaxation and enjoyment that is a vacation? Similarly, it’s also unjust that a former felon is disenfranchised. States such as Alabama, Florida, and Iowa permanently take away the right to vote to all felons and ex-felons (Felon Voting Rights). Yet, they live in the country and participate in daily activities with the rest

The prison system itself is corrupted and unfair to those individuals in it. Even though there are reform programs within the prisons, many prisoners return to prison due to inconsistent follow ups and the absence of these programs outside of prison. This creates high recidivism rates because they have a place to sleep and guaranteed meals and outside of prison it’s harder from them to have access to all of that. Elliot Currie states, “As we have crammed more and more offenders into prison, we have simultaneously retreated from the already minimal commitment to help them reenter productive society.” When the Eastern State Penitentiary was first opened in 1829, its main focus was to rehabilitate prisoners so they could reenter society (Eastern State Penitentiary). Now, overcrowding is a major issue in the United States prison system. According to the FBI Releases Preliminary Semiannual Crime Statistics for 2015, the most common crime was possession drug crimes, followed by property crimes. This shows that majority of those incarcerated in prison are there for nonviolent crimes. The government should change their drug law policies and instead of doing prison time, be forced to pay a hefty fine. This way, it can reduce jail and prison populations and thereby reducing recidivism