ANOTHER GENERAL ELECTION LOOMING

Voter apathy is always a big issue around election time but, well, who cares?

Changes to the British voting system mean that this year a limited number of prisoners will be allowed to vote. Apparently, there is a growing campaign proposing that denying prisoners a chance to vote is an abuse of their human rights. I'm guessing that being murdered is also an abuse of one's human rights, so maybe there's a trade-off there.

The prisoners who are getting to vote this year are the part-timers. These are the convicted criminals who go to jail for three or four days a week but are allowed to spend the rest of their time at home with their families. That's an interesting concept. You're forced to spend a set number of hours each week somewhere you don't want to be, doing stuff you'd rather not do, pushed around by people you don't much like, but the rest of the time is your own. That's pretty much all full-time employment is.

I'm not sure what crime you have to commit to get the part-time sentence. I guess it's a half-hearted crime. Like, robbing a bank but only taking the small bills, or fraudulently overpaying on your tax return. And if you're their prison officer you're actually putting in more time at the prison than the criminals. That's got to be tough.