A group of academics has called for Welsh prisoners to be given a postal vote to "improve Wales' international standing". This is a rather shallow argument. One might better say that the reform would bring Wales into line with the rest of the civilised world leaving just the United States and the rest of the UK with an Old Testament approach to crime and punishment.
The pragmatic justification, apart from the moral one, for not stripping convicts of one of their civic rights is that it keeps them in touch with their community and thus helps their rehabilitation.
I am aware that it would be invidious to judge which convicts are reformable and which are dedicated career criminals, and that the latter are predominantly Conservative sympathisers, but that is a price worth paying for the greater benefit.
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