No. Next topic.

My personal belief is that Monopoly has it right, if you’re in jail, you don’t get anything. When you’re out, go vote!

Agree with you Jamestown. I think it is great when someone turns their life around. They should be congratulated. Outstanding.

I met a former inmate at a coffee shop the other day. He said hello then told me he has been out of jail for 5 years. I congratulated him and shook his hand. Anytime I see a former inmate who improves themselves by staying out of jail they need to be congratulated. As for voting while incarcerated that’s a legal question that the legislature has to address. I do not agree that prisoners should receive welfare checks while they are incarcerated.

Once you are off parole, you should be able to vote. You have done your time. I am suprised the President Obama and the liberals have not given inmates the right to vote while still incarcerated. They would vote liberal every time.

Maybe I should be quiet before I give them any ideas.

Thanks Commander!! I understand where you come from and I agree in some aspects. When I was sitting in prison I looked aroundevery day and said to myself wow what kind of dirty nasty people are here. Unfortunately I have to be labeled as
Those people, but inside I know what I am who I am and what I am about. Thank God I got my act together early in life and I will not be a statistic that will be going through the revolving doors. I personally seen guys being release, not a month passed by and they are back on a violation. It was very hard for me to find friends behind the wall. What everybody was talking about is how they committed crimes or what Crime they will commit when they get out. Going through the system I only met a handful of decent guy that we’re there for stupidity

xfelonjoe, I applaud your efforts to be on the straight and narrow. You are among the small percentage. However, this does not change my opinion. When you are off paper, your right to vote will be given to you. You have earned it. I feel each person is given an opportunity to choose between doing what is right and doing what is wrong. Obviously you are mature enough to realize you did wrong and you accepted your fate. Along with you being labeled a convicted felon, certain rights are taken away and have to be earned back. You currently are doing it the right way and my hope is you continue. You have made a great change in your life and are a better man for it. We all will not always agree. Both of our perspectives come from an entirely different background.

Broken system you hit it right on the money. The prison system is full of petty crime criminals! Most are in there for some type of drug conviction. I have known many people that turned their lives 360 after drugs. Now they run legitimate businesses, have families, kids, and pay taxes. So why should they be banned from voting? This is an issue that should be looked into. I myself am a perfect example. I used to live on the streets being a drug addict. I went to prison for five years and did my time. For the past seven years I have been clean and for the past five years I own my own business. I also recently opened up a fire restoration service. I help families that had their house burned down. So it doesn’t mean that if you were a drug addict you are a drug addict for life. People change. Thank you guys.

OF COURSE they should be able to vote! My God! With so many people going to prison for paper crimes, victimless crimes and party to a crime, we’re not talking all baby killers, rapists and murderers for Pete’s sake! Lighten up!

I agree with commander. If you are a convicted felon you lose certain rights. Those rights can be limited through proper legislation which is signed into law and enacted.

I have to disagree with kdstudeny. When you commit a felony and are incarcerated, you pay the debt that the Jury recommends and the Judge serves. The victim of the crime is never repaid. A felon should not be allowed to vote as they are not allowed to own a firearm. If they were given the same rights as any other citizen, then sex offenders would not have to register and could live next to schools. They chose to commit the crime or crimes, knowing the consequence. So I strongly feel they should not have the right to vote.

If the inmate has paid his debt to society and completed his sentence (including parole). They should have the same rights as any other citizen.

Yws, they pay taxes so they should be allowed to vote, if not they should not have to pay taxes…

Im 23 now and have been in Corrections since I was 18. Between this and the military its all I know how to do. I’ve grown up with some the inmates that I’ve supervised. I’ve seen their children grow. I’ve also been there for many of their incarcerations and releases. However the worst thing for me to see is a return. I have never enjoyed knowing that our prison is failing: reform, recidivism, change. Whatever it may be I have seen many of the inmates which I have released return. Some take years or months, others take weeks or days, even one just hours. I think that until our prisons can offer better reformation, and our country better opportunities that we cannot trust outlaws. Though outlaws are the very heart of the US I do not think that we can allow those who have imposed criminal actions against their people the right to vote. Imagine the 10,000 STG members at the polls….I am a firm believer in my American Freedoms and the right to bear arms and the right to vote I believe should truly be Unalienable rights yet my answer is still….no.

Mick said, “We are normally out numbered between 7 and 10 to one.”
I wouldn’t know what to do if our numbers were that good.
I’m looking at 150 and 200 to 1 every day and they’re still trying to cut our budget. Our prisons are better than 98% full, yet we have between 2/3 and 3/4 the authorized staff. My facility has just under 1000 inmates and we run shift with only 12 officers, including shift supervisor and central control. We typically have 1 officer per housing unit, some of our housing units have has much as 240 offenders assigned at any given time.

Thanks Mick!!

When it comes to voting you think a “Gang Banger” will even think of registering to vote? NO I don’t think so . First thing on there mind is where can i steal some $ so i could buy drugs and resell them. They don’t care about our community! They sell crack and heroin to there mothers and sister. VOTE? for them? hahaha they don’t even know the definition. Its Ok i get of parole in 5 years and i will get my right back and i will use them.

As you say you have gotten yourself sorted out and good for you.
But as we both know most of the people that you lived with in prison are career criminals. They live by the rules of the jungle. Predator and Prey. Fear those more powerful and prey on those weaker. And this is why Officers treat inmates the way they do. It’s a matter of control. We are normally out numbered between 7 and 10 to one. So it necessary so assert control and discipline in ways that one not use in normal society. You have seen inmate culture for yourself so you cannot deny it.

xfelonjoe,

The formatting here has gone to crap. Would you repost please? I missed almost half of the last paragraph. As for being the only ex-felon here, that is ok. Your voice needs to be heard. But be forewarned, you are not likely to get a lot of sympathy here.

From what I have read so far, you have made some significant changes. My hat is off to you.

As for what sent you to prison, was it the act of getting high or the act of denying the owner of an item (in this case a bicycle, other instances it is money ie Madoff) its future use and all future benefits that come from possession of that item? Getting high may have led to taking the bike, but it was the second that got you to prison. It is the taking of what is not yours and denying the owner both its current use and future use with all the benefits that stream from that future use that got you there.

As for CO’s and their behavior, I could not read that paragraph because of the formatting issue (could be my machine, but all other web sites I visit do not have that issue which leads me to suspect it is this site).

And my apologies to suetigger for getting her moniker jacked.

Ok Its me again! Hello and good afternoon. I guess I am the only ex-convivt in this room. You Know what its ok today.heres a little story on me.————————-

I went to prison from stupidity!! I got charged with Burglary2 in New York State. What did i do? i was in a basment of a big building and stole a bike so i could sell it and get high. Was i right ? NO i know that but why get treated like a bad criminal? I did not kill no one i did not shoot no one and i did not Rape no one . But hay if not prison i would still be a junkie today most probabley if i was still alive.

just had to throw all that in..

Why did i speak bad on the CO’s.??? ok why whould a CO say “hay FAGOT i’m speaking to you” of when its count time and your sleeping you dont have to kick the bed and yell at the top of your lungs to scare a person. its just these things they do and get away with everyday. Now i meet some Good CO’s. I was a porter in my housing unit and our steady’d were great. so not all the CO’s but a lot of them are like that.

That sex offender thing should be in a separate post. There’s a lot going on there. I’ve been typing and deleting and restarting this post for over a half hour trying to make an intelligent response, and when I read what I’ve written it looks like a long-winded rant against sex offenders and doesn’t get across what I’m trying to say.

I don’t have much faith in the “experts” or the “treatment scholars”. They run our prisons today and they are the ones who are in charge of the treatments we have in place right now. But if the current recidivism rates are so low, doesn’t that indicate that the current treatments are effective?

I can easily accept that not ALL sex offenders will re-offend, especially if I consider that some get the label of “sex offender” and don’t really deserve it (such as the young man who at 17 had a 15-year-old girlfriend).

So if the myths are nothing more than myths, Shakey would be incorrect in thinking it’s a danger to send our kids outside to play. The post by suetiggers clearly states it isn’t likely that our kids would be in danger. On the other hand, if I had a dog that bit someone and the vet said it would be unlikely for that dog to bite again, I’d still watch that dog closely.

With that thought in mind, if I had a neighbor that messed with a child I’d keep a close eye on that neighbor. Since he’s now a neighbor, that would move him away from the potential 7% of people who molest kids they don’t know and into the potential 93% of people who molest kids they do know. Looks like it’s a Catch-22… damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

Yes to the question posed: being allowed to vote after release (the debt is paid); Yes, that is a ton of information to digest…I think that what tiggersue is saying is that so much of what we assume about people is based in something other than truth or reality (the two are not necessarily the same) that to broadly paint a whole classs of people as being incapable of preforming a basic civil function says more about us than about the group itself.

And yes to esfellonjoe: you have got some issues to deal with starting with who is responsible for what. Tiggersue’s critique is also applicable to you, Joe.

Yes.

Wow, that was a lot of info for a forum chat room but I can see that if this is true per the facts that suetiggers posted, then maybe we should find an alt. to the way we deal with ex- sex offenders. Don’t get me wrong these men (and sometimes women) should be dealt with severely for the crimes they commit. But should we not also evaluate the policy as to where these individuals should go. If the information that is ingrained in our thinking is correct, “that they will commit these sex crime again”, Why are we forcing the sex offenders all to a certain area, then are we not flooding that area with a group that is more prone to commit a certain type of act that they are familiar with. keeping them away from places where children congregate, daycare, schools, parks ect.. pushes them right into the family neighborhoods, a place where our guard is a little lax because we are home and that’s a sanctuary for us. How many times have you heard the “Go outside and play” response when the parents wants a little quite time, that’s like throwing a mouse in the back yard with the cat.. As for the question about voting. Unless they stop all violent offenders from voting. yes, they should still be allowed to vote…..But hey, I’ve been wrong before.

Still digesting. I’m having problems swallowing some of it.

What does reformed sex offender laws have anything to do with offenders voting???