Source: sentencingproject.org 6/27/24
The United States is an outlier nation in that it strips voting rights from millions of citizens solely on the basis of a criminal conviction. As of 2022, over 4.4 million people in the United States were disenfranchised due to a felony conviction. This is due in part to over 50 years of U.S. mass incarceration, wherein the U.S. incarcerated population increased from about 360,000 people in the early 1970s to nearly 2 million in 2022. While many U.S. states have scaled back their disenfranchisement provisions, a trend that has accelerated since 2017, the United States still lags behind most of the world in protecting the right to vote for people with criminal convictions.
The right to vote is a cornerstone of democratic, representative government that reflects the will of the people. The international consensus on the importance of this right is demonstrated in part by the fact that it is protected in international human rights law. A majority of the world’s nations either do not deny people the right to vote due to criminal convictions or deny the right only in relatively narrow and rare circumstances.
This report highlights key findings since 2006:
Taking away the right to vote pisses me off. Where in the constitution does it give the government the right to take away the right to vote?
US is a country of gross punitive administration. We like to get our pound of flesh instead of rehabbing people. And if extreme punitive measures that we have actually worked, we wouldn’t have 25% of the worlds inmates while still not having anything near to the lowest crime among nations.