Uneasy Rhetoric

The Decembrist has an interesting post about speaking to a college class about campaign finance reform. The class is in a correctional institution and, depsite the fact that they, as felons, can’t vote in most states, wouldn’t be able to even on probation or parole in many states, and wouldn’t be able to vote for life in a handful of others (see chart on page 3 – requires Acrobat Reader), they were very interested.

It has always been my feeling that felons, once released back in society, whether as probationers or parolees or free people, should have the right to vote. I’m less certain about how I feel about felons in prison. There is a certain justice to being completely removed from society during incarceration. On the other hand, they are directly impacted by political decisions in a way that many of us are not. A chink in my liberal armor? Perhaps.