E-Mail by Stephen Fraley Bio/Address
The disenfranchisement that
results from felony convictions has a discriminatory racial impact, affecting percent of
African-Americans men. This represents 1.4 million people - 6 percent of the total
disenfranchised population - according to the Sentencing Project and Human Rights Watch.
The impact of disenfranchisement is heightened by the fact that only 4.6 million black men
voted in 1996.
Conspiracy theorists would see this as incontrovertible proof that the
power elite is out to get the black man. Let us reserve the judgment , however, and
consider the facts. I am an African-American prisoner, incarcerated for 18 years. I feel
the personal weight of disenfranchisement. I am a nonentity with regard to the political
process.
This is the only democracy that denies so many people the right to vote
due to felony convictions. In addition to losing the right to vote, felons also lose the
right to serve on a jury or to hold public office. They suffer "civil death."
Unlike some states, we can regain these rights in New York after
completing parole. Since I have lifetime parole, I will never regain these rights.
While 25 percent of the New York State population are minorities, we
comprise 85 percent of the prisoners.
Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall questioned "whether the
state can demonstrate a compelling or rational policy interest in denying former felons
the right to vote." He considered it counter-productive to rehabilitation.
Many of us inside would relish the opportunity to participate in the
political processes of the nation that we love, the society that we will return to. Maine,
Massachusetts, Utah and Vermont do not disenfranchise convicted felons, but 10 states
disenfranchise ex-felons for life: Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky,
Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Virginia, and Wyoming.
Complainants in New York dropped a prison voting-rights lawsuit in 1996
when former Attorney General Dennis Vacco blocked it in federal court.
In support of restoring voting rights to parolees, Assemblyman Keith
Wright, D-Manhattan, chairman of the Legislatures Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, said:
"I think it is something that could help integrate our former prison population into
mainstream society."
The severity of sentencing policies today - i.e., three-strikes laws,
mandatory minimums and truth-in-sentencing legislation - simply multiply the effect of
disenfranchisement. Those policies swell the already overcrowded prison system, although
crime rates have leveled off. There are currently 1.8 million people incarcerated in the
United States.
Many countries permit prisoners to vote: Germany, the Czech Republic,
Denmark, France, Israel, Japan, Kenya, the Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Poland, Romania,
Sweden and Zimbabwe. Although criminal disenfranchisement disregards international human
rights, there is no evidence that the United States will consider repealing it in the
foreseeable future.
As with the drug epidemic that has been sweeping the country for the
last 0 years, many policy-makers are unlikely to give this problem serious consideration
as long as it affects primarily African-Americans. But it deserves immediate attention.
Criminal disenfranchisement is a law that most people never think
about, but should. This kind of policy seriously diminishes the right to vote,
particularly among African-Americans, undermining 40 years of struggle and strife. It is
frightening to see decades of voting-rights gains so easily swept aside. It gives me a
distinct feeling of insecurity, and that is contrary to the goals of a democracy.
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