Should Bordelais inmates be allowed to vote in the general election?

As of October 2019, the inmate count at the Bordelais Correctional Facility (BCF) stands at 503, of which thirteen are female. 312 inmates are on remand (charged with an offence but the court case has not been finalised). In an interview with the STAR last week, newly appointed BCF Director Hilary Herman, in addressing prisoner rehabilitation, said he believes that inmates should be allowed to vote in the country’s general election. 

Herman stated that since BCF is in the business of reform, they would like to see inmates take part in everything the society does. “There’s the flip side of the coin where people will say the inmates lost that privilege because they’ve committed a crime. I would like to see them become productive citizens. Part of being a productive citizen is taking your voting right seriously,” he said.

Inmates’ right to vote varies in each country. Some, including Canada, Albania, South Africa, Norway and Switzerland, allow all prisoners that right. On the other hand, in the United States of America, only two states, Maine and Vermont, allow all prisoners to vote. 2020 US President hopeful, Bernie Sanders, has in recent months stated his belief that everybody should be allowed to exercise their voting right. Writing in a USA Today op-ed in April, Sanders stated that punishment for a crime does not cause people to lose their rights to citizenship, and should not cause them to lose their right to vote. “This should not devolve into a debate about whether certain people are ‘good enough’ to have the right to vote. Voting is not a privilege. It is a right,” Sanders said. 

On Wednesday human rights advocate Mary Francis made her position clear in an interview with the STAR and called for changes to be made. “I think they should be allowed to vote in this modern time. The fact is, like I’ve always said, it’s not because you’ve committed an offence that means you must be deprived of your rights as a citizen. They still remain human beings and they’re still citizens of the state.”

Francis, an attorney-at-law and co-ordinator of the National Centre for Legal Aid and Human Rights Inc, says that allowing inmates to vote will help with their rehabilitation. She says that it will boost self-esteem as inmates will realise that they have not been cast away from society and can still exercise their rights as citizens.

With more than half of the BCF’s inmate population on remand, Francis says this makes the matter worse because they have not been found guilty. Also, inmates are being kept on remand for lengthy periods of time. What this shows, she says, is that the system is failing citizens. She insists that people who are charged ought to be given a fair trial in a reasonable time.

“This is not being done and most inmates are on remand. Therefore, it’s all the more reason why their rights as citizens should not be encroached upon and should be upheld whilst they’re awaiting trial,” Francis stressed. “It’s a pity that such a thing is happening in a democratic society with fundamental rights enshrined as part of our constitutional law.”