This past Monday at a CNN town hall, Bernie Sanders was asked if he believes that incarcerated felons should have the right to vote, including the Boston Marathon bomber and sex offenders. Sanders said “yes.” He continued to answer the question, explaining, “I do believe that even if they are in jail paying their price to society, that should not take away their inherent American right to participate in our democracy.” It takes a lot of bravery to have that much principle in the face of an openly biased question. Within hours, the articles and thinkpieces came rolling in. “Boston bomber” trended worldwide on Twitter. Bernie Sanders, supporter of the Boston bomber! President Trump’s re-election campaign called Bernie’s statement “deeply offensive.”
Senator Sanders couldn’t be more correct. If democracy is truly a fundamental value for America, we should be treating all of our citizens the same, even our prisoners. One of Sanders’ big talking points on the campaign trail was “creating a vibrant democracy.” I wouldn’t call depriving 2.3 million people the opportunity to involve themselves in the democratic process helpful to creating a vibrant democracy. Giving prisoners the opportunity to participate in politics while in prison creates people who have experience and are ready to participate once their sentence is up. These people were never stripped of their citizenship. When they make money working in prison, they pay taxes on that income. They are absolutely upholding their end of the social contract. While certain constitutional rights may be revoked while in prison, the Fifteenth Amendment is not one of them. The Trump administration may be trying to remove birthright citizenship, but the amendment still grants the right to vote to all people born in the United States, and it never makes any particular exclusions for prisoners.
If you’re not convinced by my regular arguments, let’s take a look at some statistics. While America has 4.4% of the world’s population, it contains 22% of the world’s prisoners. As of March 2019, that population consisted of 2.3 million incarcerated people. In 10 states, former felons lose their right to vote permanently. About half a million people are imprisoned for drug offenses, a large portion of them nonviolent drug offenses. People of color run a far higher risk of being imprisoned and having longer sentences than their white peers for drug offenses. Black Americans make up 13% of the American population, but 40% of our prison population. Also, homeless people can be arrested just for the “crime” of sleeping in public. In fact, those particular laws have increased by about 50% since 2006, according to the National Law Center on Poverty & Homelessness. America is incarcerating people at a massive rate and then stripping them of their constitutional rights. These are the most vulnerable people in America and, more importantly, the people viewed as “enemies” of the Republican Party.
Allowing prisoners to vote is just one policy in Bernie’s greater criminal justice reform plan. From increased police accountability to calling for the end of the death penalty to combating racist voter suppression tactics, Sanders plans to fix major issues that have been plaguing this country for years. At the end of the day, if Bernie gets what he wants, the Boston Bomber will be allowed to vote from prison. He is a monster who will be locked in a hole for the rest of his life, and he will also be allowed to vote in local, state, and federal elections. As will murderers, rapists, and terrorists. But so will hundreds of thousands of people who are imprisoned that are not rapists, murderers, and terrorists. People like you and me, people who have made awful mistakes that they regret, even some people who were unjustly imprisoned. These people deserve a chance to make their voice heard and participate in the democratic process. As much as it seems that I’ve diminished it in this column, the idea of letting murderers and other serious criminals vote is a tough choice to make. But Bernie’s answer to that question shows his dedication to his principles, principles that I believe in too. Every citizen over the age of 18 should be able to vote, no matter what. The right to vote is fundamental to living in a democracy. If we are a society built on respecting our constitutional and democratic rights, then this is something we have to take very seriously. At the end of the day, something isn’t a “God-given constitutional right” if it can be taken away from you.
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