Well, I wouldn&#x27;t say categorically unacceptable - if I had kids I wouldn&#x27;t want them to be supervised by a child molester even if the person had completed parole, and that&#x27;s far from the only troublesome corner case I can think of.<p>but as someone on the left, a great deal of what is taken for granted in the US penal system <i>is</i> categorically unacceptable to me. In my country (Ireland) and most other EU countries except the UK, people in prison are still allowed to vote in elections, for example; we consider the ideal of political self-determination so sacred that it is inalienable even if you lose your liberty.<p>Of course a cynical rejoinder to this is to point out the futility of voting as a political determinant and I can&#x27;t really answer that other than to stand on principle. As a pragmatic matter I dunno how you expect people to reintegrate into society by formally excluding them from the annual rituals of civic participation but then most hardliners aren&#x27;t interested in the rehabilitation arguments anyway. As a foreigner living in the US I can&#x27;t vote anyway and I feel left out on election days; I think eliminating the franchise for people with a felony conviction is an appalling psychic injury to inflict on people (even if they never voted before going into prison) and it&#x27;s one of the least defensible features of UK and US culture.