Scholarly research contributing towards an end to felony disenfranchisement in the US.
Locked Out 2022: Estimates of People Denied Voting Rights
Presented by the Sentencing Project
This report emphasizes the disturbing relationship between voter access and sentencing practices in 48 states where policies around criminal convictions absolve one’s voting rights. This research presents that, An estimated 4.6 million Americans are barred from voting due to a felony conviction.
Authors: By Christopher Uggen, Ryan Larson, Sarah Shannon and Robert Stewart
The Harvard-to-Prison Pipeline Report
Presented by the Harvard Prison Divestment Campaign
This report demonstrates that Harvard, has at least $3 million worth of holdings in the PISC across a variety of sectors. We also highlight the devastating effects of the businesses in each of these sectors, including but extending far beyond private prison operators. We show how Harvard can and must be the first university to divest fully from the prison-industrial complex.
Authors: Jarrett Drake, Xitlalli Alvarez, Joanna Anyanwu, Anna Nathanson, Amanda Chan, Paul Clarke, Zoe Hopkins, Amber Ashley James, and Ismail Buffins.
Designer: Caroline Felice Smith
Value to the Soul: People with Criminal Convictions on the Power of the Vote
Presented by the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice
This report includes the thoughts of a number of impacted people—men and women, young and old, Black, White, Latinx, and Asian—whose voices have been silenced. They are ghosts of our democracy. Included with the statements, in addition to the speaker’s name, are length of disfranchisement and length of sentence previously served or being served now. Some speakers have never had the right to vote (“Always Disfranchised”) because they were caught up in the criminal justice system before they turned 18. Some people have had their rights restored because they have completed their sentences. Statements have been lightly edited for brevity.
Authors: Ryan P. Haygood, President and CEO; Henal Patel, Associate Counsel and the Honorable Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Legal Fellow (primary author); Ronald W. Pierce, Democracy and Justice Fellow
Scott Novakowski, (former) Director of Civic Engagement
Cover Design: Mosaic Strategies Group
Layout: Hallow Creek Productions, LLC
Democracy Needs Everyone Report
Presented by Initiate Justice
Initiate Justice surveyed more than 1,000 incarcerated people and people on parole in California with the goal of uncovering how our political system could improve by ending felony disenfranchisement. Our key findings were people who are incarcerated and on parole believe that restoring the right to vote would improve public safety, people who are incarcerated and on parole want to vote and people who are incarcerated and on parole contribute to their community in a variety of ways.
Authors: Taina Vargas-Edmond, Gregory Fidell, Lisa Schottenfeld
and Sasha Feldstein
Design: Julie Mai
The Freedom to Vote
Presented by the Southern Coalition for Social Justice
North Carolina is one of a handful of states that disenfranchise people living in our communities who are on felony probation and parole. Unfortunately, this policy, which dates back to the early 1900’s, disenfranchised nearly 70,000 North Carolinians in 2017. This number doesn’t even begin to count the number of people who never re-registered to vote or did not realize their rights had been restored upon completion of their probation or post-release supervision. Despite the fact that these tax-paying community members are a part of our neighborhoods, churches, and civic groups, they are denied the ultimate right to civic participation — the right to vote.
Special thanks to Democracy NC and Kaneesha Johnson
Unlock Civics: Cook County Jail Voters
Presented by Chicago Votes
The goal is simple, increase access to the ballot and civic knowledge for Illinois’ incarcerated population. CCJ is one of the largest single-site county pre-detention facilities in the United States, admitting approximately 100,000 people annually and averaging a daily population of 6,000 people. While over 90% of those incarcerated in this facility have the right to vote, many of them do not know they are eligible to vote and are missing out on their opportunity to participate.Chicago Votes’ CCJ Votes initiative aims to address this disconnect at a systematic level; working at the intersection of organizing and advocacy to ensure that people affected by the criminal justice system know their civic rights and responsibilities.
Prepared by: Jen Dean, Deputy Director
Voting in Jails
Presented by the Sentencing Project
While the COVID-19 pandemic presents challenges for voters during the 2020 election cycle, voting access for the 700,000 people held in local jails around the country has long been critically compromised. This report highlights jurisdictions around the country that actively support ballot access for people detained in jails.
Prepared by: Nicole D. Porter, Director of Advocacy
1844 No More
Presented by the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice
New Jersey first broadly denied the right to vote because of a criminal conviction in 1844, the same year that the state adopted a constitution that limited the right to vote to white males, and a time when slavery was still legal and practiced in New Jersey.
Almost 175 years later, New Jersey still denies the fundamental right to vote on account of a criminal conviction. It’s time we sever the link between voting rights and the criminal justice system. Join us as we raise our voices to put an end to this anti-democratic practice and tell Governor Murphy and the Legislature: We Are 1844 No More. For more on the historical origins of New Jersey’s disfranchisement law, read the Institute’s report.