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Constitutional Ammdendment to Strip Prisoners of Right to
Vote Position Feeling he hadn’t gone far enough to repress the quite legitimate questioning of his prison policies, the Acting Governor also moved to amend the Massachusetts Constitution in order to strip prisoners of their right to vote (which the Supreme Judicial Court had explicitly ruled existed). Having made it a political priority, the Governor forced this issue on the legislature. They held a Constitutional Convention just before election season in 1998, and voted overwhelmingly to approve this Constitutional Amendment. Discussions with many legislators revealed that they realized that this disenfranchisement was uncalled for, but that they voted for it because they knew that the issue had to be approved by a subsequent legislature, and then the electorate, before it became law. For this reason, many felt that it wasn’t worth voting against on the eve of campaign season, despite the amendment’s dubious/negative value. The issue has not yet been acted upon in this legislative session, and it is the hope of the CJPC that it will not be (and therefore allowed to die). Massachusetts is a state that prides itself on the broad civil rights and liberties found in its state constitution. Granted, if those civil rights and liberties are presenting a threat to our social fabric, then we should consider amendments. But in the instant case, prisoner voting presents no threat to our society. Prisoners vote at their last address before incarceration, so there is no threat of prisoners overrunning a local election where their prison or jail is located. Further, the fact is that very few prisoners actually do vote. And if prisoners do want to follow political events and engage in the civic, democratic process of participating in elections, shouldn’t we encourage this pro-social behavior? Otherwise, aren’t we only further isolating and alienating these people who will, by and large, ultimately be returning to our communities? Amending the Constitution is not to be taken lightly. The question is not "why shouldn’t we amend it?" but "Why should we amend our Constitution?" Voting is a fundamental Constitutional right of all Massachusetts citizens. There is no legitimate reason to scale back citizens’ rights in order to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. |
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Criminal Justice Policy Coalition |