The directors of Recruit With Conviction support the Howard League Scotland and a number of leading figures from Scottish civic society in calling the Scottish Government to review of the blanket ban on convicted prisoners voting in the independence referendum.
Our request is pragmatic rather than political – restriction of voting rights does not deter criminal activity.
Voting is a responsibility as well as a privilege and therefore voting is an opportunity to engage in citizenship and reflection of the greater good – qualities which employers want.
Giving back responsibility is key to starting work and stopping crime.
The full text of the letter is on the link below and the signatories are:
Dr Oliver Aldridge MBBCh,DRCOG, MRCGPGPwSI
Addiction Medicine Specialist
Tam Baillie
Scotland’s Commissionerfor Children and Young People
Mark Bevan
ProgrammeDirector, Amnesty Scotland
Shami Chakrabarti
Director, Liberty
Andrew Coyle CMG
Emeritus Professor of Prison Studies,University of London, and former
prison governor
Mike Dailly
Principal Solicitor,Govan Law Centre
Andrew Deans
Member ofthe Scottish Youth Parliament, AngusNorth and Mearns
Mike Ewart
Chief Executive, Scottish Prison Service 2007‐2009
Reverend Sally Foster-Fulton
Convener, Church and Society Council, The Church of Scotland
Tom Halpin
Chief Executive, Sacro
Alison Hannah
Executive Director, Penal ReformInternational
Martin Johnstone
Chief Executive, Faith in Community Scotland
Tony Kelly
Solicitor
Kaliani Lyle
Scotland Commissioner, Equality and Human Rights Commission
Juliet Lyon CBE
Director, Prison ReformTrust
Margaret Malloch
Senior Research Fellow, Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research
Robin McAlpine
Director,Jimmy Reid Foundation
Isabel McCue
Chief Executive, TheatreNemo
Gill McIvor
Professor of Criminology,University of Stirling
Andrew McLellan
Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons in Scotland 2002‐2009
Fergus McNeill
Professor of Criminology and Social Work,University ofGlasgow
Jim Murdoch
Professor of Public Law,University ofGlasgow
Mike Nellis
Emeritus Professor of Criminal and Community Justice,University of
Strathclyde
John ScottQC
Chair,Howard League for Penal Reform, Scotland
David Shrigley
Artist and adviser to Insight and Outlook,the Koestler Exhibition for
Scotland 2012
Morag Sievwright
Development Co-ordinator, Faith in Throughcare
Richard Sparks
Professor of Criminology,University of Edinburgh
Alec Spencer
Former prison governor and Director of Rehabilitation and Care, Scottish
Prison Service, and Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice,
University of Stirling
Alan Staff
Chief Executive, Apex Scotland
Ruth Stark
Manager, Scottish Association of Social Work
Cyrus Tata
Professor of Law and Criminal Justice,University of Strathclyde
Richard Thomson
Director, Recruit With Conviction
Jackie Tombs
Professorin Criminology and SocialJustice,Glasgow Caledonian
University
Robin Waterston
Clerk,Quakersin Scotland
Pete White
Co-ordinator, Positive Prison? Positive Futures
http://www.howardleaguescotland.org.uk/Open_Letter_on_Prisoner_Voting_12-05-2013.pdf