A prisoner in Maine still has the right to vote while incarcerated. By contrast, forgery in the state of Mississippi can be grounds for permanent disenfranchisement.

Maine and Vermont are the only two states that directly allow inmates to vote from prison. Mississippi is one of 12 states that could potentially force felons to lose their voting rights until completion of sentence or permanently. Other states have varying laws and different voting rights for their prisoners — states decide their voting laws for the incarcerated population as opposed to the federal government.

Ultimately, however, voting rights for prisoners are widely limited across the country. According to The Sentencing Project, 6.1 million Americans were stripped of the right to vote in 2016 due to state felony disenfranchisement laws, a dramatic increase from 1.17 million in 1976.

For many years, the debate around prisoner voting rights was virtually nonexistent. As prisons deal with the explosion in population though, the question of whether all prisoners are subject to “civil death” has become more prominent.

This is no more apparent than it is in the words of the 2020 presidential candidates. In an April 22 CNN town hall, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said he supported inmates’ right to vote. Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana and a Democratic presidential candidate, openly disagreed with this point some hours later, when his town hall aired.

“Part of the punishment when you are convicted of a crime and you’re incarcerated is you lose certain rights,” Buttigieg said. “You lose your freedom. It does not make sense to have an exception for the right to vote.”

Buttigieg’s stance on prisoner voting rights is synonymous with that of many Democrats. Many are hesitant to restore voting rights to convicted felons, or afraid to speak on the topic at all. Take Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who avoided giving a definitive answer by vaguely saying that the public should have a “conversation” about prisoner voting rights.

The controversy surrounding prisoner voting rights centers around the question of how we define an inmate’s humanity in American society. There’s really only a singular argument in support of preventing current prisoners from voting — that committing a crime is grounds for punishment in the form of disenfranchisement.

But at what point do prisoners become citizens void of their civic duty? Per federal law, inmates maintain freedom of worship when they are incarcerated. They have some level of freedom of speech and are allowed to write for open publications. Given those specific rights, and their association with citizenship and humanity, there is no reason that the right to vote shouldn’t extend as a part of those rights.

At least 95 percent of all current prisoners will be released at some point in the future. For each of these people, successful reentry into society can be contingent on their connection to the outside world and the community, as well as the policies that affect them. Shutting out inmates from voting increases hostility and disconnection between them and the world they will inevitably reenter.

It’s true that people become incarcerated because they are convicted of a crime. It’s also true that the American criminal justice system is not only overpopulated but disproportionately racist. The United States makes up about 5 percent of the world population but has 21 percent of the world’s inmates. Black people are incarcerated at five times the rate of white people — black women are imprisoned at twice the rate of white women. This racial disparity transfers to the population that can be barred from voting. Due to felony disenfranchisement, one in every 13 black voters do not have voting rights as opposed to one in every 56 non-black voters.

For many black voters who may lose voting rights over crimes or incidents that white or non-black voters would not necessarily be convicted for, a loss of voting rights keeps them in a system that disproportionately affects them. Disenfranchisement affects black communities more than it affects any other. By not having the right to vote, black prisoners especially have no way of escaping that system — one that already majorly disadvantages black people.

I’m not saying that voting rights should automatically be extended to all prisoners. Indeed, felony disenfranchisement is constitutional by the 14th Amendment, which dictates that the right to vote can be removed on the grounds of crime. Certain crimes can be particularly horrifying — and, admittedly, may be so horrifying that they constitute removal of voting rights.

But while exceptions could be made for these inadmissible crimes, the reality is that the majority of people in the prison population are there for crimes that do not affect their reasoning or their ability to function in society. Revoking voting rights due to crime should be a rare exception, not a default.

Regardless of their crimes, inmates are expected to abide by the law. How can we reasonably expect them to do so without giving them a chance to have a say in those very laws? How can we expect lawmakers to pay attention to the injustices in prisons all across the United States if prisoners have no voice?

Giving prisoners the right to vote may seem like a complex issue. But looking at the majority of inmates for who they are — human beings who will reenter society — reveals a need for humanity, rather than hostility.

Andrea Bian is a Medill first-year. She can be contacted at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.