My position is that we should focus on REDUCING THE NUMBER OF FELONS, who in so many cases have Black people as their victims, from committing a felony in the first place.

Sometimes the best way to eliminate bad results is to try the other direction in the FORK IN THE ROAD.


MBM - What is your view of VOTING RIGHTS for those who are CURRENTLY INCARCERATED?

******

quote:

If you are to judge a nation by how it treats the lowest among us, the United States still refuses to take the highest road to democracy.

In this statement is Mr. Jackson indicating that the poor are more prone to be associated with drugs and felonies?

quote:

Originally posted by Constructive Feedback:

My position is that we should focus on REDUCING THE NUMBER OF FELONS,

It might help to remove this huge political incentive for the creation of felons.

As long as the law allows the average adult black male in Florida to be allocated three fifths of a vote (to the nearest fifth) under felony disenfranchisement laws, the game will be rigged to produce more and more black felons.

If the average black man in Florida had been allowed a full vote, Bush would not be president, and we would not be in Iraq.

Remove the incentive for the creation of felons. End felony disenfranchisement.

quote:

and we would not be in Iraq.

Sadly though - the Deaths in Iraq would have continued as they did prior to the war that enabled the removal of the deadly sanctions upon the innocent people of Iraq. (Not that you would care though - they are not American soldiers. )

quote:

Originally posted by ricardomath:

quote:

Originally posted by Constructive Feedback:

My position is that we should focus on REDUCING THE NUMBER OF FELONS,

It might help to remove this huge political incentive for the creation of felons.

As long as the law allows the average adult black male in Florida to be allocated three fifths of a vote (to the nearest fifth) under felony disenfranchisement laws, the game will be rigged to produce more and more black felons.

If the average black man in Florida had been allowed a full vote, Bush would not be president, and we would not be in Iraq.

Remove the incentive for the creation of felons. End felony disenfranchisement.

I'm confused, are you saying that the idea of not having a full vote contributes to the growing number of black felons, seems to me if anything does its the crooked justice system.

Of course there is the disclaimer that there are some folks who deserve to be in jail.

"My position is that we should focus on REDUCING THE NUMBER OF FELONS, who in so many cases have Black people as their victims, from committing a felony in the first place." by Constructive Feedback

Felons lose rights that many law abiding citizens take for granted.

......indeed, and anyone who believes there is an advantage to being a felon is dreaming. In the event any innocent individual is so violated in this manner, this would be good cause for redress to file a claim to clear the individuals criminal record, and for damages to compensate such an individual for being illegally incarcerated.

Don't expect much support from the typical Black elected leadership, journalists, clergy, psuedo civil rights activists and/or treasonous Black lawyers, because many times these individuals are more criminal than those who are serving time, about to serve prison time, and/or anyone out on parole.

Unfortunately, far too many Black males and females are behind bars for criminal acts truly committed.

quote:

Originally posted by jazzdog:
... seems to me if anything does its the crooked justice system.

Be careful now jazzdog, you don't want anyone to accuse you of being a liberal or a quasi-socialist who isn't contributing to transforming the Black community and expects the white liberals in gubament, whom you follow faithfully like a lemming, to provide for you. There will be no pointing out of the injustices in the infrastructure of this country... or else!!

Regarding disenfranchisement of former felons and the affect it has on their reintergration into society:

"The result, according to the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit organization that promotes alternatives to incarceration, is that about 1.7 million people nationally are denied the vote despite having paid their debts to society. Minorities are disproportionately represented. This is wrong, and it's bad policy to boot. Reintegrating former criminals into society is a hard task under the best of circumstances. It is all the harder when the stigma of a conviction lingers forever, undermining a person's citizenship and pushing him away from the community into which he is supposed to be reintegrating."

Human Rights Watch explains it this way:

Disenfranchisement laws in the U.S. are a vestige of medieval times when offenders were banished from the community and suffered ˜˜civil death." Brought from Europe to the colonies, they gained new political salience at the end of the nineteenth century when disgruntled whites in a number of Southern states adopted them and other ostensibly race-neutral voting restrictions in an effort to exclude blacks from the vote.

We know the civil penalty for criminal behavior is aimed at controlling the vote of African American-Americans.

It applies to only men, because at the time of the passage in 1868, women were not allowed to vote.

In case no one is paying attention here, 1868 is the year citizenship was extended to include those with a history of involuntary servitude.

P.S. I have included a limit on felony sentencing as a supporting plank in the platform of the African American National Committee.

HELLO!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Isome:

quote:

Originally posted by jazzdog:
... seems to me if anything does its the crooked justice system.

Be careful now jazzdog, you don't want anyone to accuse you of being a liberal or a quasi-socialist who isn't contributing to transforming the Black community and expects the white liberals in gubament, whom you follow faithfully like a lemming, to provide for you. There will be no pointing out of the injustices in the infrastructure of this country... or else!!

While I believe in capital punishment when the guilt is clearly established (i.e. caught in the act) and tough sentencing, once a person has paid his debt he or she should be able to enjoy the full benefits of being a citizen in this country which included voting. Of course that will never happen because we still have people in this country who aren't felons who aren't allow to exercise their right to vote (Florida, Ohio) so I guess felons and non-felons at least in those two states are still gonna get screwed.

quote:

Even though felons have served their time, the Supreme Court says Florida can still ban them from voting.

Here we go again with this bleeding heart bull shit about Felons?
These kinds of topic really piss me off.
This is such Hog wash.
These felons can get their voting rights back, simple by following the rules to do so. it's says so right in the article.

The process should ensure that voting privileges are accorded to the deserving.
"I think it would be a mistake to restore automatically all voting rights for all defendants without regard to whether they've accepted responsibility, expressed remorse and paid restitution to the victim,"

Felons are giving the opportunity to get their voting rights fully restored.
Most states, now have some sort of steps, as to how to get ones voting rights, back, So this is a farce, to many folks beleive.
From my understanding, only three times murdering felons, don't get their rights back. I could be wrong on this?
In 43 of the 50 US states, criminals are given back their votes after leaving prison or emerging from probation.
But so many of them are so lazy, to walk the walk back, they want someone else to do it for them.
And most felons never serve their entire sentence. So they have never full fill their time.

How many other amendments should we dispose of, so that crimmals can do as they please? EMP>>>>>> The 14th Amendment permits states to deny the vote "for participation in rebellion, or other crime."
After all? It was their own decision to commit an act for which they assume the risks of detection and punishment."

Fuck Felons!
Who gives a damm, that they can't vote, They should have thought about their voting rights, when they were out comitting crimes against the rest of us?

There's crying every time there's an election, or an up and coming one. Oh! the poor Felons, They pay taxes?
So what? illegals pay tax too! and that does not make it right, that they wrong?

Look at the way, they present this article? The Black community some how suffer's from the lack of Thugs voting, or felons have served their time? Bull shit'

The BLack commiunity is suffering, is because of these Dog dropings preying on the 'Black community, without any fear of who they hurt?
ROBBING at will'
KIlling at will"
Rapeing at will"
Stealing at will'
TAking away the quailty of life for the rest of us.
Just fucking up the Black community at will"

YET! we get these 'Liberal doggooders, enabblers crying over them?
Again, Fuck! these picecs of shit 'Felons' To hell with all of them.

I say' let them sucker's suffer for the rest of their lives?
VICTIMS DO.

No voting rights for these animmals'
Don't dog the system' and the system won't dog you' Ok!

"When it comes to the cause of justice, I take
no prisoners and I don't beleive in compromising.">>>Mary frances Berry

Monday, April 04, 2005
Felony Voting Ban

In their headlong rush for irrelevance, the traditional progressive black leadership has taken up the mantle of a new civil rights cause: black felon disenfranchisement. (This as opposed to empowering their constituents through ownership and choice.) Alas, the discussion falls rather low on my list of priorities. While issues of education, wealth and cultural well-being persist, I will not lose sleep because those who have preyed on the civic body can't vote.

Currently, 48 of the 50 states prohibit inmates from voting while incarcerated and the vast majority of states prohibit felons from voting while on probation. Sounds right to me. The punishment for breaking the laws of civilized society is that certain rights are taken away, namely your freedom. It is not unreasonable that in addition to being placed behind bars, one should also be denied the right to vote.

There are five states that deny the vote to ex-offenders even after they have completed their sentences and nine others who deny the vote only to certain categories of ex-offenders and permit others to petition to have their rights restored. Felony voting rights advocates argue that it is undemocratic to set up barriers to voting as though the right to vote were absolute. But the right to vote is not unrestricted. There are all sorts of conditions a citizen must meet before being allowed to vote, not the least of which is being a citizen of the United States. We do not allow non-citizens or children to vote. The buffoons in the California State Assembly who suggested lowering the voting age to 14 notwithstanding, one must still be at least 18 years of age. Felons are also denied the right to own firearms, a right guaranteed to citizens under the 2nd amendment to the Constitution. Why then is it so outrageous (or immoral as some have charged) to deny the right to vote to those who have been convicted and served time for a felony? Or to require that after release a felon demonstrate that he/she has abandoned his anti-social ways before reclaiming their voting rights.

Folks like Jesse Jackson and the Congressional Black Caucus argue that these laws hurt the black community because blacks (and black men specifically) make up a larger share of the felony population. Thirteen percent of the 4.7 million Americans who have currently (because they are serving time) or permanently lost their voting rights are black men. This disparity hurts the black community and by extension the Democratic Party. This more accurately explains why the voting rights of drug dealers, rapists and thieves have become the concern of civil rights activists. Black felons voting in Florida and Ohio may have made the difference in the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004. Of course, running candidates that embrace the notions of hard work, family values and personal autonomy might have made the difference as well. But why quibble? Giving votes to felons is a shortcut to shore up softening black support for the Democratic Party.

Confronting a party that is suffering due to its own lack of vision is discouraging enough, but it is truly disheartening to witness a party so cynical that it would look to criminals to shore up its base, particularly when the overwhelming majority of the victims of this new interest group were other black people.

According to crime statistics, 54% of forcible rape victims are black women who describe 98% of their attackers as black men. I am just not convinced, as the traditional civil rights establishment seems to be, that the welfare of black America is now in their hands.

quote:

Originally posted by Isome:
Sentencing Project, a nonprofit organization that promotes alternatives to incarceration, is that about 1.7 million people nationally are denied the vote despite having paid their debts to society. Minorities are disproportionately represented. This is wrong, and it's bad policy to boot.

Reintegrating former criminals into society is a hard task under the best of circumstances. It is all the harder when the stigma of a conviction lingers forever, undermining a person's citizenship and pushing him away from the community into which he is supposed to be reintegrating."

Inmates should not have the right to vote until they have paid their sentence infull. Once the debt has been cleared then their voting rights should be restored.
I really do not see it as a big issue as it is unlikely that they would exercise the right to vote anyways.
More energy should be focussed on the law abiding citizens who continue not to even participate in the democratic process. The voting block of non-participants is substantially greater than for cons. IMHO this is just another red-herring issue.

:: Sentencing Project ::

Recent research suggests that prohibiting persons from voting due to a felony conviction has significance at the community level as well, particularly in areas of high concentration of disenfranchisement. For persons in areas of high disenfranchisement, the dilution of a community's political voice is of particular concern when a large proportion of voting-age adults is prohibited from voting. Further, voting is a social and cultural activity, fostered through political awareness, discussion, and participation in a community. For persons living in communities of concentrated disenfranchisement, there is a reduced probability that such a political culture will emerge; rather, the risk of alienation from electoral politics due to ambiguity about registration and voting eligibility is increasingly likely.

R.I.F.

I will provide a link to a story I found out about Florida and this felon issue..

Florida does not abide by it's own laws when it comes to this thing.

According 2 the Florida state law, the felony had to have been committed in Florida.

People who commited felonies in Nevada and later moved to Florida should not have been affected by this, yet they were..

I find it odd that felons don't get to vote, yet they pay the same rate of income tax...?

quote:

Originally posted by blaqfist:
According the Florida state law, the felony had to have been committed in Florida. People who commited felonies in Nevada and later moved to Florida should not have been affected by this, yet they were..

That is a Jebbism (Jeb Bush). He makes his own rules as he goes along. Here's one story that flies in the face of claims that it's easty to vote, all a former felon has to do is ask:

...when Pastor Johnson (a former felon from NY who moved to FL and ran a half-way house) attempted to register in Alachua County, clerks refused and instead handed him a fifteen-page clemency request form. The outraged minister found the offer a demeaning Catch-22. "How can I ask the governor for a right I already have?" he says, echoing, albeit unknowingly, the words of the Florida courts.

Had Johnson relented and chosen to seek clemency, he would have faced a procedure that is, admits the clemency office's Tawana Hayes, "sometimes worse than breaking a leg." For New Yorkers like Johnson, she says, "I'm telling you it's a bear." She says officials in New York, which restores civil rights automatically, are perplexed by requests from Florida for nonexistent papers declaring the individual's rights restored. Without the phantom clemency orders, the applicant must hunt up old court records and begin a complex process lasting from four months to two years, sometimes involving quasi-judicial hearings, the outcome of which depends on Jeb Bush's disposition.

Little wonder that out of tens of thousands of out-of state felons, only a hardy couple of hundred attempted to run this bureaucratic obstacle course before the election. (Bush can be compassionate: he granted clemency to Charles Colson for his crimes as a Watergate conspirator, giving Florida resident Colson the right to vote in the presidential election.)

How did the governor's game play at the ballot box? Jeb Bush's operation denied over 50,000 citizens their right to vote. Given that 80 percent of registered voters actually cast ballots in the presidential election, at least 40,000 votes were lost. ...

The Unreported Story of How They Fixed the Vote in Florida
from the book -- The Best Democracy Money Can Buy
_{(Penguin 2003) by Greg Palast}

Thanks Isome.

We know Shadow's not talking about felons like G. Gordon Liddy and Oliver North.

Palast is the best source for the Florida debacle...

He knows everything about it...

Here is the link to the out of state felonies and how Florida did not even play by its own rules.

This is one of the most ridiculous issues to be even talking about. It ranks right up there with hate crimes and reparations. If ex-felons were ever remotely interested in politics, many of them probably would have never been in trouble with the law. Political participation and voting was not even on the minds of most criminals. Yet ex-felon voting rights supporters act like if criminals get the right to vote, it will turn their lives around. Please! The right to vote doesn't even help to solve the problems of law- abiding Black people. How's it going to improve the lives of Black ex-felons?

quote:

Originally posted by dougmc:
This is one of the most ridiculous issues to be even talking about.

Then you shouldn't waste the keystrokes on it.

quote:

...If ex-felons were ever remotely interested in politics, many of them probably would have never been in trouble with the law.

How does one come to such a conclusion? Considering that people change over time, where is the logic in concluding that the way someone is as a 20 y/o is the way they will be at 40 y/o. Or, the way someone is before having their freedom taken away, is the way they will be after it is returned.

quote:

Political participation and voting was not even on the minds of most criminals. Yet ex-felon voting rights supporters act like if criminals get the right to vote, it will turn their lives around.

Actually, most supporters have read the studies, the stories, and perhaps have worked with former felons and know firsthand the challenges they face, the concerns they have about reintergration into society. It's not based on visceral reactions sans any critical thought.

quote:

Please! The right to vote doesn't even help to solve the problems of law- abiding Black people. How's it going to improve the lives of Black ex-felons?

The right to vote is only the beginning of one's civic responsibility, it is not supposed to be the end all and be all.

quote:

This is one of the most ridiculous issues to be even talking about. It ranks right up there with hate crimes and reparations. If ex-felons were ever remotely interested in politics, many of them probably would have never been in trouble with the law. Political participation and voting was not even on the minds of most criminals. Yet ex-felon voting rights supporters act like if criminals get the right to vote, it will turn their lives around. Please! The right to vote doesn't even help to solve the problems of law- abiding Black people. How's it going to improve the lives of Black ex-felons?

Off topic.

Who is wrecking havoc on our community's? Who is most affected by these thugs / felons?
It is not the white boy's, felons like G. Gordon Liddy and Oliver North. Its little Poo-ke' TOOKIE, and his bang of trash who is doing the damage to our community's.

Criminals and Thugs do what they do to us every day of the week because they are lazy and do not give a damm' about any one but themselves. Thugs/ TRAsh like TOOKIE.W will do this, at-least until they are caught and sent to the legal system. Then it's oh! I had a bad child hood, the system is Racist, or the Police was out to get just me, because I was there when the stickup was going down.

They say the Old African way of dealing with malcontents is the fault of the whole community.
What did we do wrong, so that these no goods had to do the things they do to us? It is the fault of the community for not doing what was necessary, so that these malcontents would not do what they do.
Well this is one African mindset that needs to go by the waste side. At least modify?
If one steals cut off the hand and give them a job where they only need one hand,
Rape One of God's most precious gifts? Cut it off and put it in a jar so all can see.
Give this one a job helping mothers give birth.

When we look around this country, we can find crimes every day, committed by these thugs, mothers burying their sons, Black business leave the hood because of robberies, and shootings. Innocent peeps being shoot by misdirected bullets from the drug culture. However, we as a so-called thinking peeps keep right on protecting these destroyers of life,

How much longer should the low life of this world be allow to do as they please to us, not wt' but us?
How long do most of us have to work almost four months out of the year to pay taxes, so the legal system has to control the things criminals do?
How many live are to be changed, by these pieces of shit?
How many Sistas must lose their minds over what has being done to them?
How many funerals must we have?
How long will our old folks have to live in fear? First the memories of slavery/Klan, then reconstruction /Klan, then the new deal / Klan, then social programs that didn't work /Klan, now our own African' peeps acting as the ˜Klan' Damn' they don't have much longer?
How much longer must we have to work to replace the things taking by this crap, don't we call this "Slavery"? /working without benefit of reward or compensation/

Why do these Social crated Moon bats keep bring up this? This well if you were in prison, how would you feel about being mistreated? Well this is a misguided premise, of course I would not want to be mistreated, but does this negate all of the thousands who live out here, who continue to suffer because some ˜Socialcrat's wants less time, more money, more liberal laws to cuddle these thugs? Criminals are in prison to suffer, be it any one or me else?

If these laze ass mothers want work' there is plenty of work for any one to be able to do right, without harming others, for some cheap gold, cars they other wise can't afford, and the list goes on?

Landscaper, car washers, garage attendants, tire installers, car lot jockeys, and Legal assistants'since they know so much about law proceedings. They could help with Legal Aid in the Community. Construction workers, which go begging some times, street sweepers, crop pickers, garbage collectors, chicken puckers, crab pickers, volunteers at shelters, Nursing aids in black nursing homes, which we are know are the worse? Hospital aids, Zoo assistants, and roofing helpers.


But" they rather become felons.

Afro-center Peeps need to wrap their love and compassion around the ˜Victims"
Not the Evil' that's does wrong to us.

˜Negative self-destructive behavior' is what felons have presented to us.

What happens to the victim's dreams? Rights? Standard of living,
Dead VICTIMS do not get to vote again Ether.

Thugs/felons get = let us count them to-gather
Phone calls
Free medical care, free drugs,
Early parole for good behavior / some is going to have to explain this one to me/
Free lawyers
Money to write books gives speeches to a font our kid's minds,
Psychologist free
Reduce sentences by judges
Thugs getting to choose their sentences
Drug programs, community homes, free food, and roof over their heads, and let now forget endless appeals
Even the homeless has dignity, but what about the thugs/felons
Unfair sentencing, where? Are they not the ones who are killing you and me?
In addition, folks want to give these felons voting rights.

We have lost the very notion of spirituality, which is to transform "evil" into peace, freedom, and justice.
WE have allowed Social violence to exist as social necessities, to prove that the white man is evil for arresting our thugs and criminals, and turn them into felons. It is our social and political
˜Responsibility' to make sure criminals and thugs get punish. Not babyfied. That includes no Voting Rights.


Prisons, Concentration Camps, How, Where, when?

Prisons are for thugs who commit crimes, Concentration camps are for those the government deems a threat to all. Moreover, No Voting rights are a part of the punishment. Not a separate issue.

Prisoners do not spent enough time, as they should behind bars to be consider concentration camps.
Why they even being paid for being there.

EMP == Attica inmates are to receive over 8 Million dollars for the destruction that they cause back a century ago. That comes out to around 6.500 to $125,000 dollars for some 502 or so thugs. Not bad work if you can get it.

How can prison be so bad if the wrong in our society keep getting out early?
They don spent enough time behind bars to qualify been in a prison or concentration camp. Yet! They want Voting rights to continual to VICTIMIZE THE VICTIMS, by passing felons rights laws.

Take Md. for EMP? Felons are let out way ahead of their actual time served. "Good Time' credits.
One recent case concerned a felon who was let out early from a ten years sentence to four after assaulting women and children for years. He went straight out again, rape, and killed a 9 years old boy.
Hear what the law says = an inmate shall be allowed a deduction in advance from the inmate's term of confinement, subject to the inmate's future good conduct".

Now get this too? This means that's inmates get time off for studying, observing the rules, for working, and double bunking with cellmates, Dud? Huh? What did you say? Think about it? Funny how they can follow the rules in prison but cannot seem to follow the rules out side prison.

A violent criminal can get from day one, two years taken off, of a ten-year sentence. Sounds like day camp to me. Most states have to start talking about release and probation as soon as the thug comes in.
Where is the punishment? Where is this concentration camp mentality?
When are felons going to serve their complete time?

November 2000 in The Md. system, some 54,000 convicts who were on conditional release were
941 killers, 1.368 rapist, 141 kidnappers, 1,302-armed robbers, 1,976 burglars, 9,523 assailants, and some 1,429-gun law violators. There is no way any one can show me that some white boy living in some all white hood, made these thugs do the things they were rightfully convicted of. Systematic Racism? Not a chance. There are just too many others out here that proves this wrong. Some how we need to get beyond this mindset, which white people sit around all day think of ways to oppress black folks. If The Systematic Racism of America was working, where did all of the Middle Class Black folks come from, who follow the rules of law?

Crime and punishment should be the rule of the day. Not more do nothing programs like ˜Break the Cycle"
Where convicts/felons skip drug test and fail to show up for probation appointments. Where officials cannot site one case of a transgressor was sent to prison for violating programs such as Break the Cycle.

DNA testing, funny how thugs wants Free DNA testing when their butts are on the line, to prove their innocents, but fight right a-long with the "Enablers' to keep mandatory testing from felons to prove guilt?

Criminal Justice? No doubt, all the justice goes to the Criminal / Felons

Facts Edited from the Sun article dated December 3, 2000

G. Gordon Liddy, convicted Watergate conspirator, exhorted his listening audience to shoot ATF agents (officers of the law) in the head. Though his audience is predominately white, they are white Americans. Since we, too, are Americans who live in the U.S., not outside of it, their war-like attitudes always have an effect on our communities. We do not function in a vacuum.

Oliver North was a major orchestrator of the Iran/Contra scandal. That scandal was responsible for flooding the country with cocaine, the profits of which went to buy arms for the Contras.

The by-products of the flood of cocaine were the street level crack dealers in the Black communities throughout the country.

The link between the avalanche of cocaine that began in the late-eighties and Ollie North's Iran/Contra is proven in documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

That is all off topic however, the issue here is felons who have served their time. For all our sake --to reduce recidivism and normalize their interactions with society-- they should be reintegrated with the right to participate fully in choosing their elected officials and voting yay or nay on ballot initiatives.

Uninformed ranting in no way rebutts the historical analysis proving that the impetus for disenfranchisement was to nullify the strength of the Black vote.

quote:

Originally posted by Isome:
G. Gordon Liddy, convicted Watergate conspirator, exhorted his listening audience to shoot ATF agents (officers of the law) in the head. Though his audience is predominately white, they are white Americans. Since we, too are Americans who live in the U.S., not outside of it, their war-like attitudes always have an effect on our communities. We do not function in a vacuum.

Oliver North was a major orchestrator of the Iran/Contra scandal. That scandal was responsible for flooding the country with cocaine, the profits of which went to buy arms for the .

The by-products of the flood of cocaine were the street level crack dealers in the Black communities throughout the country.

The link between the avalanche of cocaine that began in the late-eighties is proven by documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

That is all off topic however, the issue here is felons who have served their time. For all our sake --to reduce recidivism and normalize their interactions with society-- they should be reintegrated with the right to participate fully in choosing their elected officials and voting yay or nay on ballot initiatives.

Uninformed ranting in no way rebutts the historical analysis proving that the impetus for disenfranchisement was to nullify the strength of the Black vote.

ANd NO amount of being an "Enabler' will change the condition of felons. They will always be the lowest of the low.

When will your elk, understand, FELons never serve their complete time. I posted it for you.
How long will it take, your kind to understand, not having voting rights is part of the sentence? It is not seperate issue.

Black folks don't have to buy Drugs, no matter how brings them in. and you forgot to Include CLinton in the circle.

No VOting rights for felons, who preyed on us.
Let them suffer, just like their VICTIMS.

^^ uninformed ranting ^^

http://www.globalexchange.org/democracy/nyt110300.html
To Alabama's attorney general, Bill Pryor, that process
ensures that voting privileges are accorded to the deserving.
"I think it would be a mistake to restore automatically all
voting rights for all defendants without regard to whether
they've accepted responsibility, expressed remorse and paid
restitution to the victim," Mr. Pryor said.


Losing the Vote: The Impact of Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States

Losing the Vote: The Impact of Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States provides a comprehensive analysis
of the impact of state laws that disqualify current and former felony offenders from voting. The report includes the
following statistical highlights:

State Disenfranchisement Laws

46 states and the District of Columbia prohibit inmates from voting while serving a felony sentence. Four states-Maine,
Massachusetts, Utah, and Vermont-permit inmates to vote.

32 states prohibit felons from voting while they are on parole and 29 of these states exclude felony probationers also.

10 states disenfranchise all ex-offenders who have completed their criminal sentence. Four others disenfranchise some
ex-offenders. In addition, Texas disenfranchises ex-offenders for two years after they have completed their sentences.

Impact of Felony Voting Disenfranchisement

An estimated 3.9 million Americans, or one in fifty adults, have currently or permanently lost their voting rights as a
result of a felony conviction.

1.4 million persons disenfranchised are ex-offenders who have completed their sentences.

1.4 million African American men, or 13% of black men, are disenfranchised, a rate seven times the national average.

In seven states that deny the vote to ex-offenders, one in four black men is permanently disenfranchised.

Given current rates of incarceration, three in ten of the next generation of black men can expect to be disenfranchised
at some point in their lifetime. In states that disenfranchise ex-offenders, as many as 40% of the black men may
permanently lose their right to vote.

Policy Implications

The scale of felony voting disenfranchisement in the U.S. is far greater than in any other nation and has serious
implications for democratic processes and racial inclusion. The impact of these laws has been exacerbated by a quarter
century of "tough on crime" criminal justice policies that have led to more people going to prison for longer periods of
time. Policymakers at the state and federal level should reconsider these policies in light of legitimate correctional
objectives and the democratic interests served by recognizing the right to vote of all sectors of the population.

quote:

Originally posted by Shadow:

When will your elk, understand,...

I'm not an elk, though I am a mammal. I am a female bi-ped of the human variety.

quote:

... FELons never serve their complete time. I posted it for you.

I saw a post about MD. 1) MD is the entire nation. 2) A release date (sans parole) is a release date, whether the sentence was reduced or not. Once released, they need full reintergration.

quote:

...not having voting rights is part of the sentence?

It is not a part of the sentence, since all sentences, except for life & death sentences, have a start and end date. It is a seperate issue that creates more problems than it solves.

quote:

The scale of felony voting disenfranchisement ...has serious
implications for democratic processes and racial inclusion. The impact of these laws has been exacerbated by a quarter century of "tough on crime" criminal justice policies that have led to more people going to prison for longer periods of time.

That further bolsters the argument that the disenfranchisement weakens the black vote, and that prisoners serve their time.