Felony disenfranchisement plagues people suffering from mass incarceration in a number of ways. These include people imprisoned in 48 of 50 states and those released from prison in 18 states. People often forget that these are not the only way that people are disenfranchised by the effects of the corrections department. While incarcerated in jails […]
This summer multiple candidates have rolled out comprehensive plans to reform America’s desperately ineffective, overcrowded Criminal Justice system. For decades prisoners, their families, allies and advocating organizations have been pleading with officials to make Criminal Justice Reform a national priority. Until the current race there hasn’t been a presidential candidate willing to make transformative reforms […]
It seems at though Washington was serious about increasing civic engagement for those impacted by incarceration throughout the state. At the very beginning of this year two voting rights bills were introduced, SB 5076 was introduced by Senator Patty Kuderer. The bill would restore voting rights to over 90,000 individuals on community custody. It quickly […]
California has historically been a leader in reversing the symptoms of Jim Crow laws that continue to exist in the United States. These Laws restricted Blacks from securing housing and exercising their voting rights. The federal government turned a blind eye to the local and state laws that reenforced slave conditions on the newly freed population and many states took […]
It’s critical right now for political officials to get on the right side of the new suffrage movement. Just this week council member Robert White, announced the proposal of legislation that would reenfranchise incarcerated citizens residing in the District of Columbia, making D.C. the first jurisdiction in the country to reenfranchise incarcerated residents. White already […]
The Right2Vote Campaign was born out of 2018’s National Prison Strike where incarcerated citizens led a nationwide demonstration against the abhorrent conditions of United States prisons. The strike was so vast that it spread across 17 states into 3 additional regions outside of the U.S. Prisoners made their demands known worldwide and what seemed to […]
With our chanting Reparations 2020 and ADOS (American Descendants of Slaves) there’s a revived spirit among Black America that paints a color over this election that I’m invigorated by. We have full sight of our demands in 2020. Now that our generation has reached an age of maturity to not only vote but become well […]
Currently the only two states in which incarcerated individuals have the right to vote. In Maine and Vermont incarcerated individuals never lost their voting rights. These two states also have the whitest prison populations and with the realization that policies never came to strip the rights of incarcerated citizens in the north-most region of the […]
Since the beginning of the year we’ve been able to create a cohort made up of organizers across the country working toward the end of nationwide felony disenfranchisement. We believe that democracy works best when everyone being governed within it has the opportunity to be involved in the democratic process, including those impacted by the […]
Like every state, New Mexico is a battle ground full of its own complicated layers and complex processes in government. I was shocked by the structure of the New Mexican legislature with a biennium session that last only 60 days! New Mexicans have only two months to draft, promote, advocate for, revise, schedule a hearing […]