In a democratic society, felons out to retain the right to vote.

I affirm the resolution: in a democratic society, felons ought to retain the right to vote. This resolution not only deals with the United States, but with all democratic societies in the world. Before moving on to the values, I will proceed to clarify definitions. Democracy: a form of government where the supreme power is held by the people;. Felon: a person currently convicted of a felony and not yet completely served their sentences –whether it is imprisonment, probation or parole. Felony: a serious crime (such as murder or arson). My value premise is Democracy; because this resolution deals with felon disenfranchisement in a democratic society, our main goal is to be democratic. Because a democracy is a form of government where the power is held by the people, maintaining the rights of the people is essential to having a democracy. The people's rights must be protected so that they may maintain the supreme power that they hold over the government. Therefore, my value criterion is protection of human rights. There are certain rights that people are entitled to, and that they must have in order to have a functional democratic society. My first contention is that voting is a right in democratic societies that cannot be violated. All people reserve the right to vote and let their opinions be heard in a democratic society. Because a democracy gives power to the people, we cannot choose who has the right to vote. A clear example of a democracy is the United States. Although it is not a pure democracy, it is as close to one a nation can be without being impractical. The United States has a population approximately of 305,559,149. A pure democracy would have to count every one of these votes – therefore a democratic republic is the best way to handle a large population while maintaining a democracy. The Founding Fathers founded this nation upon the idea that everyone is equal and that everyone is entitled to equal rights. The First Amendment of the Constitution includes many rights – one of these is the right to free speech. If a normal civilian's voice is heard through their vote, and a felon is not, we have violated their right to free speech by limiting the impact of their opinion. Even though this resolution does not specifically deal with the United States, it can be agreed that a democratic society tries to give everyone the right to have a say in the government to uphold the concept that the supreme power is held by the people. The sentencing of a felon violates no other rights than the right to liberty – which is why imprisonment is such a severe sentence. Every person has a right to have their voice heard in the government and by letting felons retain their RIGHT to vote, we protect their human rights in a democratic society. My second contention is that disenfranchising felons does not fulfill any of the recognized penal goals. These are retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation and incapacitation. Felon disenfranchisement does not fulfill any of these reasons to punish someone. Felon disenfranchisement does not deter felonies and it does not incapacitate the felon from doing any more crimes. It is clear and quite obvious that felon disenfranchisement does not deter crimes, because a felon undeterred by the chance of being caught and sent to jail won't be deterred by the threat of disenfranchisement, and it also does not stop them from committing future crimes. Violating someone's right to vote is not a suitable method of retribution because it is not proportioned to the offense. My third contention is that by taking away a felon's rights to vote you are counter-productive because you hinder the rehabilitation process. When felons are trying to become normal civilians once again, they need to receive the same benefits as a civilian would. This includes the right to vote. Because a democracy aims to be fair and just it gives power to the people. When you let felons retain the right to vote, you understand that violation of this inherent right is not a suitable method of retribution and you also realize that you help the rehabilitation process by giving them that right. Certain prison facilities are named "Rehabilitation Centers" because they realize that part, and maybe even most, of the reason for imprisoning felons is to rehabilitate them. Through this we can see that rehabilitation is a goal of the justice system and needs to be valued when punishing a felon for crimes. By helping the felons merge with society and become a civilian again, you protect their right to be assisted in the rehabilitation process, and by stripping them of the right to vote, you hinder that right. My fourth contention is that felons aren't necessarily irrational, mentally unstable, and against society. By not letting felons retain the right to vote, you assume that there would be a negative impact on society by giving them the right to vote. However, felonies aren't universally agreed upon, so it is an unfair assumption that felons would negatively affect society. Clear examples of this are sodomy laws everywhere in the world. Sodomy is a felony in places like the state of Virginia, Algeria, Botswana, and Nicaragua, just to name a few. These laws aren't the same in different democratic societies throughout the globe; therefore any statement saying that felons are against society is invalid. Because felonies are not agreed upon globally, there is a blurred line between choice and the right to do certain actions. Therefore, we can agree that we not only protect certain people's rights on the level of doing what they want, but we also protect the right of felons to not have the label of counter productive toward society.