Chicago Votes’ Silenced Documentary brings together impacted voices in order to address the basic issue of disenfranchisement in our communities. Featured speakers remind viewers that, “America moves in a malicious way” as Illinois was founded on the disenfranchisement and criminalization of Black people like many other states’ legislation concerning voting, follow the national government’s trend towards dehumanizing those behind bars, even prior to conviction a status during which all adult citizens voting rights are maintained, but continue to be neglected or disregarded.
Knowing that facilities fail to support eligible citizens seeking to participate in their local and state elections, the documentary answers the question of why we continue to legitimize the existence of these types of institutions. There is a false narrative that prisons, police and jails keep society safe by removing people from it into isolation so that our society can function in peace. This narrative is entirely untrue, maintained as truth solely because it’s been this way for so long. The documentary maintains that the effect of felony disenfranchisement is racism as it functions to disenfranchise a majority Black population. Knowing this, we must critique our state governments who continue to use various tactics to limit the political voice and power of incarcerated individuals.
Chicago Votes’ uses this documentary to prove that we as a society cannot consider ourselves to be post-racial with the continued existence of the Prison Industrial Slave Complex (PISC). The existence of the PISC has always been a tool used by elected officials to limit the political power of communities of color. We can see this in felony disenfranchisement, from the number of votes casted, to prison gerrymandering, where the number of bodies counted for congressional representation shift from urban to rural communities. These types of systems do not to work to deter crime and if our system continues to go on like this, the true crime would be that those impacted by mass incarceration will continue to be underserved politically which has already led to a massive loss of life, especially with the coronavirus continuing to spread “like wildfire” behind the wall. Restoring the right to vote to incarcerated people will allow us to create a system of accountability, especially for for judges. Prisoners and their loved ones have noticed that without voting rights there’s no real pathway for any attempt to obtain relief while in prison extending into medical, mental, dental and psychological health needs, pleas often go unanswered buried under unreported grievances and prison bureaucracy.
After viewing the screening, a local panel was invited to to speak to local issues including Nation Outside’s Darryl Woods, Michigan Liberation’s Kimberly Woodson, and myself hosted by national organizer Durrel Douglass from the Sentencing Project. Panel speakers emphasized that people in prison as citizens are deserving of voting support as citizens who happen to be incarcerated, our punishment was the sentence, not ongoing mistreatment. We can see an example of this ongoing mistreatment in the oppressive nature of the prison being exaggerated in the forced labor of the prisoners where many make less than $20 or $30 for a month of their labor. These (impoverished) conditions breed a lawless environment – where poverty exists, crime flourishes – pushing the prison environment further and further from being rehabilitative in any way. Recognizing that officials are breaking the law in their unwillingness to support jailed voters, panelists offered the following suggestions to county sheriffs:
- Notify incarcerated populations of upcoming elections at least two months prior to mailing registration deadlines
- Assign a Inmate Voting Facilitator or Jailed Voting Support staff, often the jail administrator, who can be listed as an on-campus contact for voting support needs for jailed voters seeking to participate in their local or state election
- Have registration forms available on site for distribution at least two months prior to registration by mail deadline
- Have absentee ballot request applications available on site for distribution at least two months prior to any request by mail deadlines
- Have a list of the local county clerks posted in facility common areas with mailing instructions for any registration or absentee ballot request paperwork
- Distribute voter guides for eligible voters (Vote by Mail in Jail offers free voter guides to all of our facility partners)
- Allow nonpartisan community groups to come in to host registration events or polling days leading up to the election
- Establish a call line for jailed voters to contact their local county clerk at no cost to the individual voter to ask questions or address their concerns
- Ask each individual if they’re registered at the time of booking and notify the local clerk’s office on behalf of unregistered citizens seeking to participate in an upcoming election
There are so many issues that could be addressed if the prison population had access to the vote and their political voice restored as prison doesn’t allow people to be stimulated in an engaging way that promotes a healthy change in the individual. Illinois State Representative sympathizes, “When you cut a person off from participating in democracy through voting, then you cut off one of the number one ways for them to help reintegrate into society…If we could pass a bill that would allow all citizens to vote then it would change the way that prisoners learn how to recover and re-enter society”. Knowing that the greatest weapon during slavery was ignorance and seeing how educational programs have been drastically cut behind the wall, these facilities have become silenced voting blocks, but programs like Vote by Mail in Jail (VbMiJ) aim at reversing this.
Vote by Mail in Jail launched during the November 2020’s presidential election in order to insure that incarcerated citizens had a voice in one of the most historic elections of our time. Today VbMiJ is sweeping across the state of Michigan with an invitation to each to each of the jails located in counties where off-year elections are being hosted. VbMiJ distributes free resources and educational materials to eligible voters while they are incarcerated in order to support their participation in their election through voting via absentee ballot.
We intend to increase the number of eligible incarcerated voters who participate in the local and state elections in MI by working with county jail facilities across the state to increase the number of voters who turn out at the county jails including: Wayne, Oakland, Genesee, Saginaw, Jackson, Calhoun, St. Clair, Ottawa, Livingston, Eaton, Muskegon, Berrien, Kalamazoo, Lenawee, Midland, Newaygo, Bay, Clinton, Allegan, Montcalm, Isabella, Grand Traverse, Chippewa, Clare, St. Joseph, Van Buren, Branch, Ionia, Lapeer, Mason, Barry, Roscommon, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Leelanau, Osceola, Gratiot, Huron, Manistee, Hillsdale, Oceana, Iosco, Kalkaska, Antrim, Houghton, Menominee, Lake, Missaukee, Wexford and Mackinac.
Some county jails have been more welcoming to incorporating a more robust voter support program at their facility than others. Only a select few shared that administrators already maintain a direct relationship with their local clerk in order to better serve eligible voters who are incarcerated at their facilities including at Kalamazoo, Clare and Ionia County Jails. While this hasn’t yet been confirmed, we’re hopeful.
Aside from those above, the vast majority of Michigan’s county jails where off-year elections are being hosted aren’t equipped to support incarcerated citizens who are interested in or who have questions about the upcoming November 3rd General election. In most cases, voting guidance is restricted to one sentence in the jail’s inmate guide, but VbMiJ organizers are willing to provide registration forms, absentee ballot applications, deadline reminders and even voting guides to incarcerated voters at no cost to the individual or the facility.
Prior to connecting with VbMiJ, many county jails would instruct incarcerated citizens to write a letter to their local clerk’s office in order to request a registration form be mailed to them at the facility. However Silenced Documentary Panelists shared the many obstacles to incarcerated voters that make this method extremely unreliable including little to no access to envelopes, pen, paper or money to buy stamps for mail. Without voters being supplied with any materials to make contact, their request goes completely unheard by their local clerk’s office. In jails like the Bay County Jail voters are given the same instructions, but are supplied with a stamp and an envelope to use. Bay County jail was the only facility that reported inmate participation in the August 3rd Primary Election with two registrations reported to have been sent from the jail to their local clerk’s offices. With the collaboration of jail administration staff, our hope is that with our support we can substantially increase those numbers at the Bay County Jail and our other partner facilities
I also want to wish a very Happy 35th Birthday to my dear friend and national prisoner human rights organizer Durrel Douglass!
