Felony disenfranchisement

Felon disenfranchisement is a common practice in the United States and occurs when incarcerated felons and ex-felons are denied certain rights, specifically their right to vote. Felonies vary between violent and nonviolent crimes and are considered to be more serious than misdemeanors. Depending on the crime and the state, conviction of a felony can lead to a minimum of one year in prison. Despite the crime and conviction, the question of whether or not an incarcerated felon or ex-felon has the…

Tanya Dugree-Pearson: "Disenfranchisement - A Race Neutral Punishment for Felony Offenders or a Way to Diminish the Minority Vote." Dugree-Pearson observes the discriminatory influence of disenfranchisement laws. She points out that one-third of disenfranchised voters are African American men, which is a much higher proportion than their prevalence in the general population. Although ex-felons can apply to restore their voting rights in several states, Dugree-Pearson purports that they are often…

re-enter society, they should have the right to vote. Part of the reason felons have their rights removed is due to the instant assumptions that these people cannot be good people. In the article Felon Disenfranchisement Is Anti-Democratic the author states “modern support for felony disenfranchisement is often based on negative assumptions about how one's…

laws prohibiting the voting rights of felons. As well as prohibiting the voting rights of those previously convicted of felonies. We live in a Democracy and at the fundamental base of any self-proclaimed democratic society is the right to vote. I believe we must trust the ex-felons’ judgements, post rehabilitation. The voting in America is racially skewed due to the disenfranchisement of ex-felons. Trusting the prison industry to rehabilitate inmates hasn’t been a successful one. “The US has…

judgments as well. However, while the principle seems to mean that U.S. courts shall not directly enforce foreign penal laws or judgments, U.S. courts may choose to rely on foreign penal laws or judgments where applicable” (criminalattorney.com). The felony-in-possession statute states convicted in “any court”, but does that mean other countries that have totally different laws than we do here in the U.S. It seems to be that the term “any court” is vague as to whether it refers to foreign…

The Philosophy Of Felon Voting Disenfranchisement Democracy has always been a major playing point in our country since its inception. Placing officials into office that have been elected to protect the nature of democracy is a power the people were granted in the late 1770s and solidified once we became separate from Britain, yet millions of people nationwide are unable to vote due to restrictions imposed on them either during or after their incarceration. The entire point of a democracy is the…

“Voting disenfranchisement laws for felons exist in 48 states and the District of Colombia.” (Shaw 1), and “as of 2010 more than 5.85 million adults who’ve been convicted of a felony aren’t welcome in polling places.” (McLaughlin 1). In Florida and Texas, the prison systems “disenfranchise more than 600,000 people.” (Current Impact of Disenfranchisement Laws 1). Following this trend Alabama, California and Virginia “each have close…

It is easy to criticize DuVernay for deliberately making critical factual errors in Selma before understanding her background and beliefs as a director. DuVernay is an African American filmmaker who during her college education majored in African American studies. DuVernay not only had a personal connection to the context of the film as an African American woman, but also to the general region of Selma. DuVernay frequently vacationed in Lowndes county, a township next to Selma as child. Hence…

about 5,852,180 people are not allowed to vote. That is approximately 2.5% or 1 out of every 40 people barred from voting because of previous or current felony conviction (Uggen et al, ). This is the highest it has been since the 1960s. Although some say that voting is a right that shouldn’t be taken away, criminals who are convicted of a felony should have that right suspended until their sentence and probation are completed and a set number of years has passed without a recurrence of…

In Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Alexander calls mass incarceration the “New Jim Crow.” In this way, Alexander connects the past of the Jim Crow era to the present way in which criminals are treated today. The Jim Crow era refers to the racial caste system of laws and policies once set in place during the end of Reconstruction through the late 1950s by which white southerners reasserted their dominance over African Americans by denying…