MSPs urged to give the vote to more prisoners
... and this time it’s more serious offenders serving up to FOUR YEARS
PRISOnERS serving longer sentences should be given the right to vote as well as those on short terms, says a new report.
Around 1,000 criminals serving 12 months or less will get the vote in Holyrood and local council elections under proposals published by the SnP government.
But the Scottish parliament’s standards and procedures committee has urged ministers to go even further and consider extending this to a level somewhere between 12 months and four years.
However, Scottish Conservative equalities spokesman Annie Wells said: ‘no prisoner should be given the right to vote, whether they’re inside for ten minutes or for life.
‘It was bad enough that the SnP wanted to include those serving sentences of a year, which includes domestic abusers and drug dealers.
‘now that they want to extend it to four years, another tier of dangerous criminals who’ve ruined the lives of their victims will be included.’
The committee report, published today, said a blanket ban on prisoner voting was at odds with the European Convention on Human Rights. It raises concerns about the decision to only extend the vote to those sentenced to 12 months or less.
The report states: ‘We believe the Scottish government has settled on an approach which fails to address the central question of what disenfranchisement seeks to achieve.’
It adds: ‘The committee believes that the approach taken in the Bill to allow prisoners sentenced to 12 months or less to vote is inconsistent in the context of the presumption against sentences of 12 months or less adopted by the Scottish parliament in June 2019.’
It said the range of approaches presented was between 12 months and four years but no clear consensus emerged in favour of any option.
Scotland’s prison population is currently more than 8,200.
According to Scottish government statistics, more than 4,000 received a custodial sentence of three months to six months in 2017/18, more than 2,000 were jailed for six months to a year and almost 1,400 for one to two years. not all would have been in prison at the same time.
The figure for longer sentences was not broken down. A Scottish government spokesman said: ‘As outlined in the Bill, we recognise proposals to extend voting rights to prisoners might raise concerns about the feelings of the victims of crime – and we have not proposed extending the vote to all prisoners.
‘Restricting voting rights to those serving sentences of 12 months or less means we can comply with the European Court of Human Rights’ ruling.
‘The aim is not to enfranchise a certain number of prisoners, but to promote responsible citizenship within the context of the wider objectives of the rehabilitation and reintegration in order to reduce reoffending.’
‘Ruined lives of their victims’ ‘Responsible citizenship’