End felony disenfranchisement.
Happy Wednesday and welcome back to the newsletter. 5.2 million people were unable to vote in the presidential election due to felony disenfranchisement, an issue that disproportionately impacts the Black community. Today, Olivia outlines the breadth of felony disenfranchisement, including and beyond participating in politics.
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GET EDUCATED
By Olivia Harden (she/her)
As the conversation about Black Lives Matter and racial inequity for Black Americans, particularly concerning police brutality and mass incarceration, was brought to the forefront, I decided it was a good time to re-read “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander. The book details mass incarceration in the United States and its intentions to disenfranchise Black Americans. The United States’ makes up 5 percent of the world’s population yet holds 25 percent of the world’s prisoners (ACLU). This is attributed to the war on drugs, which began in the 1970s. Nixon’s public policies led to stricter federal sentencing laws, militarized enforcement in Black and Brown neighborhoods. Incarceration has grown by ten times since then (Drug Policy Alliance). We know that the United States quickly rushes Black and Brown people into the prison system. But what happens after?
A felony conviction for any American will change their life forever. And because of racial injustice in the American criminal and judicial system, one out of every three Black men have felony convictions (Sentencing Project). But something important to know, most felony convictions are not the result of a fair trial. 94% of convictions at the state level, and 97% at the federal level, are a result of plea deals (The Atlantic). There is also a subset of the population with felony convictions that never saw any jail time at all but took a plea bargain that offered parole (The New Jim Crow). Alexander believes people convicted of felons become “second class citizens” in American society. Once the felon label is attached to your record, it’s an outcasting scarlet letter that can never be taken back.
A major roadblock for someone with a convicted felony is employment. A 2010 survey found that up to 92% of employers conduct criminal background checks (EOCC). But organizers have rallied to “Ban The Box,” an initiative that seeks to remove a particular question from application paperwork, “Have you ever been convicted of a felony?” Ban The Box’s goal is to push background checks to a later point in the hiring process so that employers consider a candidate’s qualifications first without the stigma of a past criminal conviction. Thirty states now have adopted progressive laws along these lines. Still, only a handful of states have entirely removed conviction history across federal, state, and private hiring processes (Workplace Fairness).
When employment is a stipulation of someone’s parole, and employment is difficult to obtain,, they are now at risk of being incarcerated. We know crime is linked to poverty, and without a legal stream of income, a convicted person might resort to illegal work as a means of survival. Felony convictions can also disqualify a person’s ability to get SNAP benefits (food stamps) or Section 8 Housing (NPR). All of this creates more and more paths to being reentered into the system.
Make no mistake. The easy path to incarceration for Black people was designed that way. In 1901 president of the late Constitutional Convention of Alabama, John B. Knox, and the delegates aimed “to establish white supremacy… by law — not by force or fraud.” The Jim Crow laws were meant to get around the federal laws granting Black people the right to vote. The state constitution declared persons “convicted of a felony involving moral turpitude” could not vote without having their rights restored. Other states that were formerly a part of the confederacy soon followed (The Marshall Project).
Perhaps the most important rights that must be restored to former felons is their right to vote and their right to participate in our legal system. Election season has passed, but 5.2 million Americans were forbidden to vote because of voter-law restrictions (The Sentencing Project). Voting rights differ in every state, and we saw in this year’s election in Florida that modern-day poll taxes and other felony disenfranchisement campaigns took place (Anti-Racism Daily). In contrast, California passed Prop. 17 this year, which lets parolees vote in elections. Three out of four men leaving California prisons are Black, Latino, or Asian American. (LA Times). Restoring their voting rights is a step in the right direction for marginalized communities.
But it’s also critical to restore their rights to serve on a jury. It was only this year that California, which is considered one of the most progressive states in the country, allowed former felons to sit on a jury (NBC News). If one-third of Black men are convicted of a felony in their life, that means one-third of Black men might not have the opportunity to play a part in trials, depending on where they live (Sentencing Project). By not having a voice in that part of the legal process, other people on trial may not be judged by a group that genuinely reflects a group of their peers.
Once you’re convicted, other rights can be rescinded, including the right to bear arms, parental rights, even traveling abroad (The Cochran Firm). The United States perpetuates a myth that the criminal justice system is supposed to be rehabilitating. Instead, many people who go through the system have even more problems than before. We must organize to dismantle mass incarceration. And as we do, we must simultaneously offer support and resources for those who have already been impacted.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
A felony conviction follows someone forever, affecting the ability of a person to work and receive benefits.
The racial disparities in the criminal justice system force Black and Brown people into a form of second-class citizenship.
Dismantling felony disenfranchisement means supporting initiatives like Ban The Box to fight discrimination against anyone with a criminal record.
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