If nominated, Bernie Sanders will hand the 2020 election to Donald Trump

[thesquanderer]

58. Yes, we take away all sorts of right, but not without reason.

There are obvious reasons to take away prisoners' freedom of movement or right to bear arms. What is the REASON to take away the right to vote? How are the goals of public safety or inmate rehabilitation being served? We're just finding another way to punish them "because we can."

And then once you accept that there is a whole racial component, how can you in good conscience say that we need to deal with that separately? The "unracifying" of our CJ system will take who knows how many years, how will that help the people in prison TODAY?

Moreover, in thinking about how we can speed up that "unracifying," one piece of that could be to STOP preventing POC from voting... and since POC are disproportionately incarcerated, by not letting them voting, you are adding yet one more impediment to that "unracifying." If prisoners were a represented constituency (as they would be if they could vote), you'd probably see a lot more interest in addressing the racial issues of our CJ system.

This may be the biggest argument in ALLOWING prisoners to vote. Taking away their right to vote is just terrible racial policy. People with no representation are a low priority for getting their concerns addressed. Prisoners are still citizens.