“All saints have a past, and all sinners have a future.” Panelist Carl Wicklund shared this old Irish quote in his remarks during the July 22 Bipartisan Panel on Restoring Voting Rights. The event, organized by the ACLU and the Brennan Center for Justice, featured opening remarks by Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Rand Paul (R-KY), both of whom have introduced legislation that would restore voting rights to those convicted of crimes.
Senator Cardin’s bill, the Democracy Restoration Act of 2014 (S. 2235), is more robust because it applies to those incarcerated for any felony or misdemeanor. Senator Paul’s bill, the Civil Rights Voting Restoration Act of 2014 (S. 2550), only focuses on non-violent felonies and misdemeanors.
Senator Paul spoke passionately about his belief that one of our nation’s biggest and unaddressed problems is over-criminalization, particularly with drug charges. This applies not only to the loss of voting rights, but also to problems with finding employment and housing, as well as other impediments to individuals trying to come back as productive members of society.
Senator Cardin told the audience this can be a bipartisan issue and reminded them about the bipartisan work done by former President Bush in passing the Second Chance Act in 2008 to help those leaving prison deal with a multitude of barriers to re-entry and to avoid recidivism. Senator Cardin also spoke of the disproportionately racial element of our current system, referring to laws barring the restoration of voting rights as “one of the Jim Crow laws of our time.”
While Senator Cardin’s claim may sound like hyperbole, it is well grounded in fact. Many of these laws are the last remnants of Jim Crow laws passed in the late 19th century as a backlash to the 14th and 15th Amendments. States passed laws taking away the right to vote for felons and then expanded felony codes to offenses most associated with freedmen. The racial effects of these laws are still very prominent today. According to recent studies, one in 13 African Americans of voting age have lost the right to vote, which is four times the national average. Florida, Kentucky, and Virginia have disenfranchised at least one in five African Americans in their states. Though often portrayed as a Democratic cause, between 1997 and 2006, 16 Republican governors signed laws easing voting rights restoration policies. Project Vote hopes that such bipartisanship will be found in the Congress.
The Senators were followed by a panel that was moderated by Nicole Austin-Hillery of the Brennan Center and included:
- Desmond Meade (former felon and currently with Florida Rights Restoration Coalition and Lifelines to Healing – PICO Florida),
- Deborah J. Vagins (Senior Legislative Counsel at the ACLU),
- Rev. Dr. H. David Schuringa (Crossroad Bible Institute),
- Bernard Kerik (former New York City Police Commissioner and Correction Commissioner who was incarcerated for official corruption), and
- Carl Wicklund (American Probation and Parole Association).
Several members of the panel gave moving accounts of their own personal and professional experiences with the injustice in our system. After his release from prison, Mr. Meade attempted suicide but eventually entered a substance abuse treatment program. He went back to school, received a college degree, and just this past May graduated from law school. He is also raising five children with his wife. However, Mr. Meade, a dean’s list student, cannot vote as a resident of Florida. He is one of 1.5 million such Floridians, who together comprise a group larger than the population of 10 U.S. states.
Mr. Kerik has held a variety of law enforcement positions over several decades, including Commissioner of the New York City Department of Corrections and Commissioner of the New York City Police Department. He also has pleaded guilty to several felony charges and spent several years in prison. “I’d been working in the criminal justice system for 35 years and I didn’t get it,” he said. It wasn’t until Mr. Kerik was in prison, met others convicted of felonies, and experienced the process of re-entering society for himself that he truly understood the injustices of our system. He has spent his recent years as a prominent advocate on re-entry issues, including restoration of voting rights. Mr. Kerik said that by continuing to treat people as second-class citizens and denying them basic rights, we create an environment that encourages people to return to a life of crime.
Mr. Wicklund is part of an organization of 40,000 rehabilitation workers. He noted that of the five million individuals on parole or probation whom his organization supervises, three out of four are arrested again within five years due to policies which do not encourage people to become engaged in society in a positive way. Restoring voting rights is one of the cheapest ways to help in this positive cognitive process.
Federal legislation is also necessary to combat the failings of our current state-by-state approach, which causes a great deal of confusion. State laws range from never losing the right to vote to permanently losing the right to vote. The people affected by these laws frequently do not know what rule applies to them, and sometimes neither do the people who are responsible for enforcing those laws. As a result, some citizens are de facto disenfranchised, even though they are legally allowed to vote, while others face criminal charges for attempting to vote even though they did not intend to break a law. The Democracy Restoration Act would create a uniform, nationwide policy for all states, for federal elections, and it would also ensure that all prisoners upon release are given proper notification of their rights.
In today’s political climate, only a truly bipartisan plan can realistically pass into law. Senator Cardin and Senator Paul’s commitment to work together on this issue is encouraging and gives hope that a solution can be found to move our country further from the injustices of our current policies. The rest of the United States Congress should promptly follow their lead.
Max Etin is a legal intern with Project Vote.