Prisoners have forfeited right to vote
For the life of me, I can’t understand why the general public should care about prisoners’ voting rights. But apparently it should, despite a myriad of other glaring shortcomings in the prison system.
The kerfuffle reflects a trend where a minor issue distracts from more important problems much more deserving of attention. Those relatively trivial issues then become like a scout badge for the bleeding heart left, another box to tick to prove their empathy with the oppressed.
These issues are a gift for the National opposition and a trap for Labour. Most of the public want prisoners to be treated humanely but are not going to get exercised by about 6500 offenders, who consist mainly (about 80 per cent) of violent criminals, sex and drug offenders and burglars, not getting a say in the Government.
It is not as if their voting rights are confiscated for good. As soon as they get out they can re-enrol. On release, most inmates, I suspect, have more pressing concerns than voting in the next election.
Judges actually work hard to keep people out of prison so none of the offences earning imprisonment are trivial or generally one-offs.
Some have asked what purpose the disfranchisement serves. Pretty obvious, I would have thought.
A prison sentence is essentially treating adults like naughty and sometimes dangerous toddlers. We design a big bleak playpen and put the naughty toddlers in there as a punishment designed to instil
better habits. Some of the adult toddlers, of course, are so dangerous they have to be kept in the playpen to avoid the risk they will harm the rest of society.
Given the childlike state in which inmates live, it seems their inability to vote is just a minor part of a raft of adult rights and privileges that are withdrawn in jail.
But voting rights, we are told, are of fundamental importance.
In 2010, the National-led government amended the Electoral Act so no prisoner could register on the electoral roll and vote in a national election. Previously, only prisoners serving a sentence of three years’ imprisonment or more were prohibited from voting.
Last year the Supreme Court endorsed a High Court decision ruling the disenfranchisement breached the Bill of Rights Act.
The Waitangi Tribunal last week released its He aha i pe¯ra¯ ai? report, in which it found that taking voting rights away from inmates infringed the Crown’s obligations to Ma¯ ori under the Treaty of Waitangi. It called for the Government to change the law in time for prisoners to vote in the 2020 election.
Earlier this year, Green Party spokeswoman for electoral reform Golriz Ghahraman lodged a member’s bill giving all prisoners the vote.
I get that Ma¯ ori, who in June made up 51.7 per cent of the prison population, are disproportionately affected by the law.
The tribunal has accepted that the confiscation of the voting right gets Ma¯ ori out of the habit of voting, and their lack of input into the electoral process affects them and their wha¯ nau.
Idoubt this, but it could be easily fixed. Corrections should be tasked with ensuring all inmates are given the opportunity of re-enrolling before they are released. After that it should be up to them.
The prison system contains many more serious problems for
Reconnecting with culture and family, alcohol and drug addiction help, and employment are far more important concerns for inmates ...
Ma¯ ori to worry about than whether their inmate population has the ability to vote.
For instance, the sheer waste of man- and woman-power must be top of the list. Just have a look at the Northland Region Correctional Facility, which in June held 567 men.
Stuff is currently running a series about abysmal housing in Northland, an issue predominantly affecting Ma¯ ori. Here are nearly 600 guys, at least some of whom could be doing something useful for communities in the north, locked up and twiddling their thumbs.
Another major worry about all inmates, but particularly Ma¯ ori, is recidivism. The evidence that voting during a prison sentence would lessen the chances of reoffending on release is scanty, to say the least.
Reconnecting with culture and family, alcohol and drug addiction help, and employment are far more important concerns for inmates finishing their sentences than voting. A change in attitude and staying away from gangs might be a help as well.
Tribunal deputy chair Judge Patrick Savage said allowing prisoners to vote had the potential to have positive flow-on effects.
‘‘We were told that voting is a learned habit, once acquired, likely to be repeated. Prisoners represent a captive audience so there is a very real opportunity to inculcate them into the democratic process rather than dislocate them from it as this legislation does.’’
There are many ways of inculcating a democratic process, one of which would be having elections in the prisons.
The overall question concerning all inmates, of whom nearly 50 per cent are not Ma¯ ori, is what rights or privileges normally available to law-abiding citizens should be removed on incarceration.
But the real point is that the prison system is not particularly effective in helping or encouraging inmates to lead more constructive lives.
That’s where the debate should be. Voting rights are a distraction.