Why deny prisoners the vote?

Is the right to vote a fundamental human right? You could be forgiven for assuming that the answer is yes, given the way that so many modern politicians talk about it. Yet the phrase "right to vote" does not occur in the universal declaration of human rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948. Nor is it to be found in the European convention on human rights of two years later.

Click here to read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/21/prisoners-right-to-vote