Voting and civic responsibility for citizens who live in prison

This paper considers the voting rights, and emphasises the voting responsibilities, of citizens who live in prison, bringing together literature on democratic theory, penal theory, and some practical insights from criminology. I open by considering our conceptualisation of voting, and argue initially that we should view voting at least in part as a civic duty, and ultimately in this paper that voting is a civic duty from which citizens living in prisons should not be excused. I motivate this issue by look at the variety of practices across a range of jurisdictions, which suggest there is noting ‘natural’, necessary, or unavoidable about banning these citizens from voting. I consider two types of argument against people who live I prisons from voting: those rooted in penal theory and our expectations of punishment, and those rooted in democratic theory, and our understanding of democratic practice. I show how these fail. Next, I offer three types of argument in favour of enfranchising citizens who live in prisons: democratic, penological, and solidarity in civic virtue cultivation. I return to the practice challenges noted earlier in the article, and I offer some tentative policy possibilities, and a beginning point for further discussion.