EU court ruling means prisoners will have right to vote

LIFE peers and members of the Royal Family can't vote, but prisoners can.

That will be the outcome if the Government, as expected, agrees this week to change the law which could allow more than 70,000 inmates of British jails to vote in general elections for the first time in 140 years.

The move comes after David Cameron conceded there was nothing he could do to halt a European Court ruling demanding a change to the blanket ban preventing prisoners from voting, with Government lawyers warning that failure to comply with the decision could lead to lengthy compensation battles costing millions of pounds.

The Coalition is expected to confirm its decision to drop the ban at the Court of Appeal today, although it remains unclear exactly how the change will be implemented and which inmates will be given the right to vote.

It has been suggested that the ban could be retained for murderers and others serving life sentences and that judges may be given responsibility for deciding which criminals should be allowed to vote when they are sentenced.

Convicted prisoners were originally denied the right to take part in ballots in the UK under the 1870 Forfeiture Act and the ban has been retained ever since, except for prisoners on remand awaiting trial and those jailed for contempt of court.

However, following a legal challenge from prisoner John Hirst, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in 2004 that the blanket ban was discriminatory and breached the European Convention on Human Rights.

However, the Strasbourg-based court said that each country could decide which offences should carry restrictions to voting rights.

The Prison Reform Trust's director, Juliet Lyon, welcomed the latest move, saying people are sent to prison "to lose their liberty not their identity."

Jon Collins, campaign director for the Criminal Justice Alliance, which represents about 50 organisations, says it is long overdue. "The decision has been made and the Government can't pick and choose which rulings we comply with, it has no choice but to comply with this because it's part of the European Convention.

"It would have been better if the political parties in this country had taken the decision themselves earlier, but the fact they were reluctant to do so has meant it's dragged on."

He claims the existing ban is draconian and outdated.

"Back in 1870 the law was based on people in prison serving a 'civil death', but in the modern day we should be looking to reintegrate prisoners into their local communities because this helps them not to reoffend."

He points to the fact that prison governors have said that inmates should have the vote. "If it was a strong deterrent and prevented crime it would be different, but as far as I'm aware there is no positive argument for taking away the vote from prisoners."

However, he is concerned the Government may try and restrict the number of prisoners eligible to vote. "They need to be careful about making a decision based on the length of sentence, because if they do that they could face further legal challenges in the European courts."

Giving prisoners the vote is a politically sensitive issue which explains why successive governments have been reluctant to implement the ruling

Supporters of the ban have long argued that those found guilty of a criminal offence should lose one of the most basic rights of a citizen as part of their punishment, and to drop this undermines the law itself. But Nick Cowen, crime researcher at the think tank Civitas, says he is more concerned at the growing influence of the ECHR. "I find it ironic that they are basically stopping everyone else from voting by depriving the public of a vote on this matter. And that is quite problematic because what's the point in having the vote if you cannot make decisions on substantive policies like this?"

He disagrees with those who argue that voting is a basic right.

"Saying to people that for the duration of their time in prison they don't have the vote is quite simple and if they want to vote, the answer is not to commit the crime. I don't think it comes as a human right."

Mr Cowen is also alarmed by what he calls judicial empire building: "You can argue about the advantages and disadvantages of giving prisoners the vote, but what we have here is a bunch of judges that have decided something is undesirable, but this should be something for a democratically-elected government to decide, not them."