How might a statistician challenge this argument that appeared The New York Times [10] in January 2014?

Punishment and surveillance by itself causes people to withdraw from political participation—acts of engagement like voting or political activism. In a large survey of mostly marginal men in American cities, the probability of voting declined by 8 percent for those who had been stopped and questioned by the police; by 16 percent for those who had experienced arrest; by 18 percent for those with a conviction; by 22 percent for those serving time in jail or prison.