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I would very much appreciate your thoughts on the posts and stories on Named, Blamed and Shamed and indeed, ideas and tip offs for my future investigative journalism. You can get in touch via e-mail at shamednamedandblamed@gmail.com.
Kindest regards
Harry Blackwood,
Editor and Webmaster,
Named, Blamed and Shamed, March, 2014
Excellent,going to enjoy following this, will keep you up to date in my chosen field,and stirring the shit
ReplyDeleteH. Great enterprise. I've got your back. Looking forward to keeping up to date with your excellent scribblings! All power to you.
ReplyDeleteI like the site H, your still he best Editor the mail ever had. Got your link through HTH.
ReplyDeleteWHY ONLY PRISONERS SHOULD GET TO VOTE
ReplyDeleteApparently, prison is meant to punish. In its simplest form that punishment (in the UK at least) is meant to consist of the deprivation of liberty - nothing more, nothing less. There are of course other forms of punishment available - beatings, bad conditions, execution etc. but in the UK the sole punishment officially meted out to prisoners is that they are just that - prisoners. They can't go where they like and can't do what they like. Anyone who has spent the night in a cell will know the horrible sense of being trapped and being subject to the decisions of others. For me (yes, I was there) that seemed punishment enough, although of course some will have thought I should have been birched, strung-up or pelted with rotten tomatoes. But there you have it - imprisonment is the punishment, and in the UK we can all expect to be treated humanely while we are there. [*] The food might be a bit iffy, the officers not to your taste, but as far as punishment goes that is it - you have had your freedom removed (and freedom is a sweet and wonderful thing). So why deprive prisoners of the right to vote?
Is it because we would really like to make things worse by punishing them more? Well, I know that politicians have a fairly high opinion of themselves, but I can't believe that they really think that removing the right to vote would be likely to cause that much mental anguish, especially since voting is currently going out of fashion. So, is it perhaps because the right to vote is an aspect of liberty? Normally, I would say "yes", so are there any other liberties we could take? The freedom to hold and express opinions for instance? Or perhaps the freedom to hold certain religious convictions and practice them accordingly? Or the right to marry and be parents? If imprisonment is the deprivation of liberty then there is plenty of scope for the enforcement of further measures, however radical or extreme they might be.
But what if the BNP came to power and I objected (illegally) to their racist policies leading to my trial, conviction and imprisonment? Or to choose a less unlikely scenario, I chose to espouse racist policies in a manner deemed to stir up racial hatred, was tried, convicted and imprisoned and, deprived of my vote, had no other means of redress other than to riot? Surely a vote to change the law is nothing more than fair, reasonable and just?
There are of course other reasons why prisoners should be given the vote. If prison is meant to rehabilitate - in other words to turn criminals into model citizens - then, along with learning to work (instead of stealing), learning to vote (instead of revolting) is just as important.
But that is a subsidiary reason. Voting is an inalienable right in a democracy and, as Mrs Pankhurst might have said, not everyone in prison is bad.
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* " ... we treat prisoners humanely, decently and lawfully." http://www.justice.gov.uk/about/hmps
I should have said that the choice (of voting or not) etc. ...
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