Changing my mind on voting rights for felons

Karl Schilling is a retired investigator for the Iowa Civil Rights Commission and has long been active with the Iowa Organization for Victim Assistance, for which he currently serves as president. -promoted by desmoinesdem

Until recently I opposed the vote for felons I think, in large part, because of my irritation at three of the reasons commonly given in defense of felon voter rights. They are usually in the same sentence and go something like this, “We all make mistakes, they did their time, and they have paid their debt to society.”

The problem is that in most cases none of this is true. A mistake is going to the grocery for rye bread and bringing home pumpernickel. Beating your spouse with a rake or stealing money is not making a mistake, it’s committing a crime. We do felons no service by helping them sugar coat what they have done rather than take responsibility for it.

Secondly, most do about a third of their time.

Finally, they haven’t paid their debt to society until they have paid their restitution to the victim.

Because judges are loathe to return anyone to prison for non-payment of debt, offenders know that in most cases they can blow off victim restitution. Some counties in Iowa make a good effort to collect for victims but most don’t. (Yes, I know that some become trapped by restitution schemes but I’m only talking about victim restitution).

However, it has occurred to me recently that we do not have rights because we deserve them; that a good citizen or a bad citizen has rights that we, as a society, need to preserve. Any erosion of those rights endangers us all, offender and victim alike. It is possible that voting will help offenders feel part of society and assist in their rehabilitation. That’s a good thing but really irrelevant. A person either has rights or not, and I believe we infringe the rights of others at our own peril. We, all of us, should have the vote.

About the Author(s)

Karl Schilling

  • one of many problems

    I have with the current policy: even felons who do not owe restitution can be deprived of their voting rights for decades if they are unable to afford court costs or attorney’s fees. A fundamental constitutional right should never be conditional on a personal’s ability to pay fees.

    I can’t imagine how frustrating it would be to be a crime victim owed restitution. On the other hand, I have never seen any evidence that felon voting bans increase restitution payments to victims.

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