IGCSE First Language Coursework

According to the recent survey conducted by the “United States Electoral Committee, 88.7% of people said they would prefer not to give any voting rights to criminals. In this survey, it was particularly noted that 98% of people in senior category (aged 65+) said no criminals should be allowed to vote. What was however also extraordinary was that only 27% of “Younger” citizens (aged 20- ) said that criminals should not be allowed to vote. I, as one of 73% young citizens, strongly maintain that a criminal should be allowed a suffrage. Criminals, even though they had committed a crime, are part of a country, and more importantly, human beings, who need to have a right to choose whom they will be governed by.

To begin with, allowing criminals to have suffrage will produce numerous benefits. If voting rights were given to prisoners, as there are about 90,000 inmates in prison in Britain, politicians will more likely to add some pledges for criminals’ benefit. For example, politicians may promise criminals better facilities or better education programme in prison, trying to satisfy criminals’ needs. These promises can positively reinforce prison system as a rehabilitation facility for criminals, as criminals may learn more things in clean, comfortable, and educational place. In addition, voting process may act as a step in criminals’ rehabilitation process. For criminals to be completely absorbed by society, they need to learn a lot of things, such as being polite. However, voting is also an important aspect of their lives, as their vote can directly influence their lives in many ways. By having vote rights and executing it, criminals can have one more steps done to perfect rehabilitation. If purpose of prison is for rehabilitation, wh...

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...xample stealing valuables or possibly taking other people’s lives. However, this certainly should not be the case because if the country makes the person devoid of human rights, infringing upon them, country is committing a crime too, as every people are born with basic “human rights”, especially to choose a person who governs him. The country should not be doing anything against a person’s human right, no matter what crime they have committed, as “everyone was created equal”.

To sum up, allowing prisoners’ suffrage can provide numerous benefits such as a better place for rehabilitation, and is legally acceptable according the Section 3 Article 4 of the EU Constitution. In addition, there are too many problems in current system of suffrage because of unfairness due to availability of bails.

In this regard, I totally agree with the writer that prisoners should be a