Table of Contents
Citizen convicts
Prisoners, politics and the vote
Cormac Behan
Manchester University Press
Manchester and New York
distributed in the United States exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan
Copyright Cormac Behan 2014
The right of Cormac Behan to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by Manchester University Press
Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9NR, UK
and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
Distributed in the United States exclusively by
Palgrave Macmillan, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York,
NY 10010, USA
Distributed in Canada exclusively by
UBC Press, University of British Columbia, 2029 West Mall,
Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z2
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for
ISBN978 0 7190 8838 4
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Typeset
by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited
List of figures and tables
Figures
General election 2007: registration and voting patterns
General election 2007: party preference
Are you political?
Political awareness among prisoners
Political issues
Levels of trust
Voting in Irish prisons: 200711
Abstentionism among prisoners
Civic participation prior to prison
Civic participation inside prison
Tables
Arguments for and against disenfranchisement of prisoners
General election 2007: voting in Irish prisons
General election 2007: regression analysis of voters in prison
Lisbon Treaty referendum 2008: voting in Irish prisons
Lisbon Treaty referendum 2008: voting by prison
Local, European and by-elections 2009: voting in Irish prisons
Local, European and by-elections 2009: voting by prison
General election 2011: voting in Irish prisons
General election 2011: voting by prison
Table of legislation
Australia
Commonwealth and Franchise Act 1902
Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Electoral Integrity and Other Measures) Act 2006
Canada
Canada Elections Act 2000
Ireland
Electoral Act 1923
Prevention of Electoral Abuses Act 1923
Prisons (Visiting Committee) Act 1925
Rules for the Government of Prisons 1947
Juries Act 1976
Electoral (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1986
Electoral Act 1992
Electoral (Amendment) Act 2006
Prisons Act 2007
Norway
Enforcement of Sentences Act 2002
South Africa
Electoral Law Amendment Act 2003
United Kingdom
Forfeiture Act 1870
Representation of the People Act 1918
Representation of the People Act 1981
Representation of the People Act 1983
Human Rights Act 1998
Representation of the People Act 2000
Criminal Justice Act 2003
Table of cases
Australia
Roach v. Electoral Commission [2007] HCA 43, 26 September 2007
Canada
Sauv v. Canada (Chief Electoral Officer) [2002] 3 SCR 519
European Commission of Human Rights
Holland v. Ireland, Application no. 24827/94 (judgment of 14 April 1998)
European Court of Human Rights
Hirst v. United Kingdom (No. 1), Application no. 74025/01 (judgment of 30 March 2004)
Hirst v. United Kingdom (No. 2) [GC], Application no. 74025/01 (judgment of 6 October 2005)
Frodl v. Austria, Application no. 20201/04 (judgment of 8 April 2010)
Greens and M.T. v. United Kingdom, Application no. 600041/08 and no. 60054/08 (judgment of 23 November 2010)
Scoppola v. Italy (No. 3), Application no. 126/05 (judgment of 22 May 2012)
Hong Kong
Chan Kin Sum Simon v. Secretary for Justice and Electoral Affairs Commission, High Court AL 79/2008
Leung Kwok Hung v. Secretary for Justice and Electoral Affairs Commission, High Court AL 82/2008
Choi Chuen Sun v. Secretary for Justice and Electoral Affairs Commission, High Court AL 83/2008
Ireland
Breathnach v. Ireland and the Attorney General [2000] IEHC 53
Breathnach v. Ireland and the Attorney General [2001] IESC 59
Draper v. Attorney General [1984] ILRM 643
South Africa
August and Another v. Electoral Commission and Others, CCT 8/99 [1999]
Minster of Home Affairs v. National Institute for Crime Prevention and Re-Integration (NICRO), CCT 03/04 [2004]
United Kingdom
W. Smith v. Electoral Registration Officer [2007] CSIH 9 XA33/04
Pearson and Martinez v. Secretary of State for the Home Department EWHC [2001] Admin 239 (4 April 2001)
Pearson and Martinez v. Secretary of State for the Home Department EWCA [2001] EWCA Civ 927 (18 June 2001)
Pearson and Others v. Home Office [2001] CO/31/01 and CO/448101, 2001
Raymond v. Honey [1983] 1 AC 1
R. v. Secretary of State, ex parte Toner and Walsh [2007] NIQB 18
United States
Washington v. State, 75 Alabama 582 [1884]
Green v. Board of Elections of City of New York J S [1967] USCA2 375; 380 F.2d 445 (13 June 1967)
Richardson v. Ramirez, 418 U.S. 24 [1974]
Foreword
When I first arrived with my audio recorder to ask prisoners about disenfranchisement, the officials were incredulous. You want to ask about politics? These guys don't care about voting. Your interviews won't last 5 minutes. Ah, but people do care about voting especially people who have been told they cannot vote. To be sure, many had never voted and many would never have the opportunity to do so. Nevertheless, they had wide-ranging political opinions and experiences, so those hasty interviews turned into much longer conversations.
But prison officials were not the only sceptics. The initial response from academics was downright discouraging. Criminologists could not imagine how political rights would be salient to US prisoners, when they had so many other pressing material needs. To be fair, law professors viewed the topic as interesting, but only insofar as it engaged some rather esoteric and narrowly framed philosophical and legal questions. And, to my great surprise, political scientists and sociologists seemed completely uninterested in disenfranchisement. Many dismissed voting as a thin form of political participation something hardly worth mentioning these days.
