State policy advocates and organizers are working to guarantee voting rights for all including those completing their sentencing. State-based advocates continue the day to day work to challenge collateral consequences and mass incarceration. |
Strategizing in Denver
The Sentencing Project convened over 30 advocacy organizers from 15 states and Washington DC during the Accelerator Conference in Denver, hosted in partnership with the State Innovation Exchange (SiX). SiX is a national strategy center that collaborates with state legislators in close coordination with advocacy groups, think tanks, and activists to provide the tools and information policymakers need to be successful legislative champions.
The two-day convening facilitated connection among directly impacted activists, advocacy organizers and state lawmakers working to guarantee voting rights for all citizens including persons completing their sentence inside prison. The convening featured several interactive sessions, such as state campaign updates to expand voting to all incarcerated citizens and strategy discussions to move activists from jail-based voter efforts to organizing campaigns to expand voting rights. Participants collaborated on next steps to advance state campaigns including continued cross-state strategy discussions, developing prison based civic education initiatives, and launching implementation strategies to guarantee ballot access.
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State Reforms
To strengthen democracy and address voter suppression within Black and Brown communities, states must pass reforms establishing universal voting for people impacted by the criminal legal system. Millions of people in the United States are currently denied access to the vote because of a felony conviction.
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Illinois - SB 828, legislation that would authorize voting for persons in prison, is pending in the General Assembly. The Sentencing Project joined advocacy organizers following the June primary to call attention to the 30,000 citizens who missed out on the election because of the state’s voting ban.
- North Carolina -
In an amicus brief, The Sentencing Project argued the state’s law disproportionately deprives Black North Carolinians of the right to vote and prolongs their disenfranchisement due to persistent racial inequality.
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Massachusetts - Republican Governor Charlie Baker signed a comprehensive voting rights bill named the VOTES Act which included provisions guaranteeing ballot access for persons in jails. The law directs jails to “ensure the receipt, private voting, where possible, and return of mail ballots” for incarcerated people. The measure also requires sheriffs to track the number of people incarcerated in their jails who sought to vote, any complaints related to voting issues and the outcome of those requests.
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Washington - The state’s 2022 budget allocates $628,000 to the Office of the Secretary of State to distribute to county jails to help improve voter awareness, registration and voting in jails. Grants were allocated prior to this year’s August primary with plans to continue funding through the November general election.
Advocacy organizers in Connecticut, Kentucky, Oregon, and New York also advanced strategies to expand voting rights to persons completing their sentence inside and outside of prison. |
Black Disenfranchisement Likely Harms Black Health
In states with higher levels of disenfranchised Black voters, older Black residents were more likely to suffer from poorer mental and physical health while older white residents were not. In Health Affairs, Patricia A. Homan and Tyson H. Brown analyzed a nationally representative sample of 11,900 non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic white adults who were 51 years old or older. After controlling for state- and individual-level differences such as region, poverty and incarceration rates, age, sex, and private health insurance, they found that higher levels of disenfranchised Black voters were related to older Black Americans suffering from more depressive symptoms and more functional limitations (i.e., tasks that require mobility and motor skills) as well as having more difficulty performing instrumental and general daily living activities such as taking medication, handling money, bathing, eating, and dressing.
The Sentencing Project has shown over 6% of the adult Black population is disenfranchised nationwide — over 1.8 million Black Americans. To reduce racial health disparities, Homan and Brown stress the importance of dismantling felony disenfranchisement. |
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The Sentencing Project
1705 DeSales St. NW
8th Fl
Washington, DC 20036
United States |
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