Controversy over prisoner voting plans
The Liberal Democrats’ policies on law and order have been put under sharp political scrutiny after a television interview highlighted their policy to give prisoners the vote.
While Charles Kennedy’s affirmation of the principle has been welcomed by prison reform campaigners, political opponents have claimed they reveal that the Lib Dems are ‘soft on crime’.
Under current electoral legislation certain groups of people are disqualified from voting. These include members of the House of Lords, those found guilty of corrupt or illegal election practices in the previous five years, those who are on polling day, due to mental illness, deemed incapable of making a reasoned judgement and those currently in prison.
During an exchange with Channel Five presenter Kirsty Young on Thursday, Mr Kennedy said that all prisoners should be able to vote, saying: “If you take the view as we do in principle that an individual citizen is an individual citizen that means that you have the entitlements that go with it in terms of voting.”
The Prison Reform Trust immediately backed his comments saying that denying prisoners the vote served no purpose for either deterrence or reform.
Director Juliet Lyon, said: “Denying convicted prisoners the right to vote serves no purpose of deterrence or reform. Logic tells us that if we want people to return to their communities as law-abiding citizens, we must encourage them to play a positive part in shaping their futures by their own efforts and commitment. They must therefore be able to exercise their democratic right to vote in elections – a fundamental right in any democracy.
“The ban on prisoners voting has nothing to do with preparation for resettlement and much to do with forgetting about prisons and the people in them.”
It points out that most other European countries allow prisoners to vote.
But the Conservatives and the Labour Party heaped ire on Mr Kennedy’s head.
Alan Milburn, Labour’s general election co-ordinator, claimed that the Liberal Democrats were more interested in the rights of “criminals and the yobs” than “hardworking families who play by the rules”.
And Shadow Home Secretary David Davis today told politics.co.uk that the Liberal Democrats policy of votes for prisoners “betrays an extraordinary sense of priorities”.
Mr Davis added: “We believe the criminal justice system is already weighted too far in favour of the criminal not the victim. It is very important the Liberal Democrats are never allowed to implement this policy which would unbalance it even further.”
