At this point there are nine states with active legislation towards the end of felony disenfranchisement in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Kentucky, Missouri, New Mexico, Washington and California. In this piece I want to shine a light on the West coast, which is supposedly known as a more ‘liberal’ area of the country with a more progressive view on criminal justice reform. Despite the liberal perception they hold, disappointingly both Washington and California’s policies on voting rights completely disenfranchise individuals in community custody. Even more disappointingly their proposed legislation only partially re-enfranchises those directly impacted by incarceration.
Currently in Washington state once individuals are released from prison they must complete probation prior to having their right to vote restored, effectively disenfranchising up to 7,000 people each year. Similarly in California individuals cannot vote while on parole, but new legislation (ACA 6) would restore the rights of nearly 50,000 people. We mustn’t forget that these West coast states that freely display “Black Lives Matter”signs in the windows of their storefronts aren’t living up to the phrase when it comes to the lives of our nation’s prisoners that are disproportionately Black. We see hundreds of thousands of Black lives whose voices essentially do not matter at all in the voting booth. They’re completely barred from participating in the process of deciding on the legislation that governs their lives. In a country founded on the idea that “taxation without representation” is the greatest crime a government could commit against it’s own citizens, tens of thousands of people are taxed without representation in the seemingly ‘liberal’ states of Washington and California.
On Friday Initiate Justice hosted a launch event in support of their bill, ACA 6 introduced by Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) to restore the voting rights of individuals while on parole. During the event Initiate Justice released a groundbreaking report that analyzes the positive impact incarcerated and formally incarcerated individuals’ votes would have on our society if they were counted. According to the report, “There are approximately 162,000 citizens in the state whose voting rights have been restricted”.
Juan Moreno Hines, incarcerated in California’s DOC, shared in the report’s introduction, “As I talk to other incarcerated people who are truly doing the work of making themselves better citizens, I realize that giving every citizen voting rights expedites the rebuilding process of our communities”. Juan ends the introduction with the powerful statement, “incarceration took many things away from me but it did not take away my citizenship…Democracy needs everyone and everyone includes the people in prison and on parole. I believe we all can contribute positively to our political system if given the chance”. The report explains how those directly impacted by incarceration plan to positively contribute to society once their voting rights are restored by breaking down the most important issues of the incarcerated folks who responded to Initiate Justice’s survey: jobs & economy, education and healthcare.
Interestingly only 37% of the incarcerated people who were surveyed said that they voted before they were incarcerated, but 98% say that they would vote now if they could. In this statistic we can see that many incarcerated people’s voting rights were stripped before they ever had a chance to use them, often due to their lack of understanding or access to the political process, but many were not even of voting age prior to their incarceration.
In response to fear based arguments concerning public safety, allowing those directly impacted by incarceration to vote makes them feel more connected to their communities and as a result makes our communities safer, “For people on parole who are already reintegrating into our communities, the number of respondents who said they believe voting would help them stay out of jail increased to 76%”. The numbers plainly show that ending felony disenfranchisement is a proper investment into our communities. People who feel like they belong to a community are much less likely to commit a crime against it. Incarcerated citizens want to practice the right to vote in order to have a voice in society, participating in the selection of elected officials, to contribute positively to society. The vast majority have already exhausted the resources available to demonstrate their positive impact with 61% in school and 70% working or in vocational training.
Organizers and its supporters are eager to have ACA 6 on the 2020 ballot which requires a 2/3 vote in the legislature during this legislative session . Assemblywoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles) shared that, “we are all formally something” and no one’s former identity should be prejudiced. Former identities should not disqualify us from participating in voicing our opinion on the policies that govern their lives. Modern day felony disenfranchisement is only an extension to the racist classist system that came out of the disenfranchisement of enslaved Africans and the further disenfranchisement of Blacks during the Jim Crow Era.
Initiate Justice board member, Rahsaan Thomas serving a life sentence in San Quentin Prison gave a powerful speech, sharing that many of our caged community members are in prison because of their traumatic pasts, addition and mental illness. These were the conditions that led to their incarceration that, as we can see from the numbers shown in the report, the vast majority have overcome and centralized their focus on vocation, education and supporting their peers. Juan reminds us that, “we cannot attach ourselves as a cure” meaning that restricting prisoners from voting degrades the whole of society. In addition to the fact that restoring voting rights reduces recidivism, prisoners have incredible policy ideas that reflect the concerns of greater society. These ideas include increasing minimum wage, small business initiatives, free higher education, universal healthcare and substance abuse treatment. We can get these types of policies in place with the assistance of the tens of thousands of individuals whose votes we are completely failing to tap into.
As we prepare to advocate for the rights of formally and currently incarcerated individuals, Initiate Justice will be hosting a lobby training on Wednesday, March 6 from 6:00-8:00pm in LA and Oakland to assist in teaching supporters the skills needed to be an effective state advocate from your one’s own district. We can no longer allow the state, including those who boast about their progression, bulldoze over the interests of our people. Please Support Initiate Justice and the grassroots organizing fueling the Right2Vote Campaign.
