Giving Felons a Role in Democracy

By Robin Templeton, AlterNet. Posted July 13, 2004.

Republican National Committee Chair Ed Gillespie figures it's Willie Horton time again. Gillespie issued a statement condemning the anti-Bush voter mobilization project America Coming Together for employing people with past felony convictions.

"Democratic voters should be leery of opening their doors to political operatives until the Democrats can assure them that a convicted felon won't be on the other side," Gillespie cautioned.

But apparently, one man's dangerous felon is another's friendly poster boy. Former boxing mogul and Republican bad boy Don King is currently on Gillespie's payroll. King served three and a half years for manslaughter, has been indicted on federal felony charges including racketeering and tax fraud, and has most recently been hired to lead Republican public relations efforts in the African American community.

Gillespie's hypocrisy is obvious. It also contradicts his president's message of redemption for people coming out of the criminal justice system. In his 2004 State of the Union address, President Bush proposed a $300 million Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative to "expand job training and placement services." In Bush's words, "America is the land of second chances and when the gates of the prisons open, the path ahead should lead to a better life."

America Coming Together is taking Bush's call seriously, offering not only employment but also a chance for people with felony convictions to serve their communities and strengthen democratic participation. Given the dismal and demoralizing rates of voter participation in recent US elections (51 percent of eligible voters in 2000 and 49 percent in 1996, the lowest rate since 1960), more participation is good for democracy, period. Hiring voter outreach workers who have felony convictions is also good public policy.

According to a report released by the American Bar Association: "The most important predictive factor as to whether an offender will become a recidivist appears to be employment. Those who find work are less likely to re-offend.... To the extent that legal and attitudinal barriers to employing people with convictions can be removed, the chances of work increase and the likelihood of recidivism decreases."

Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, a Reagan appointee, also sounded the call in an address to the ABA "to start a new public discussion about the prison system." He said, "It is the duty of the American people to begin that discussion at once." Kennedy cited the biblical promise of mitigation at judgment if one of your fellow citizens can say, "I was in prison, and ye came unto me." The same applies to those leaving prison and returning to their communities.

Ed Gillespie could learn a civics lesson or two from the very people he is stereotyping. Ethea Farahkhan, an organizer for the NAACP's Houston Branch and the Texas Unlock Your Vote Campaign says, "I'm a mother, a grandmother and a formerly incarcerated person. I've been registering people to vote for over 10 years, this is my life's work. You can't just tell people to have a stake in their community, you have to show them how."

Paul Robinson is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force in Mobile, Alabama. He mobilizes voters and advocates for the re-enfranchisement of the 4.7 million Americans, including at least 100,000 veterans, who have lost the right to vote because of mostly non-violent felony convictions.

Mr. Robinson says, "First I served my country. Then I served my time. Now I'm following in the tradition of our national civil rights heroes from Alabama by bringing my people out to vote. I have the right and the responsibility to conduct voter outreach in my community."

This year 600,000 people will return home from prisons in the United States. A total of two million Americans – or one in 143 people – are incarcerated, and five million Americans have a felony conviction. People who have a felony conviction but have rebuilt their lives against the odds should be encouraged. Harassing them for doing the right thing is shameful.

Did some of the ACT employees make past mistakes? Undoubtedly. To err is human. But these workers are maintaining gainful employment and demonstrating accountability and connection to their communities. They are to be emulated, not shunned. Our job is to encourage their reintegration, not banishment.

I should disclose that this matters to me because I care about democracy in my country, and also because the issue hits home. My husband was convicted for a felony. He served seven years in prison for a crime he did not commit. He is a full-time proponent for social justice and effective public policy. I couldn't imagine a better role model for his two sons. To suggest that he's a threat or that he should be prohibited from engaging in voter mobilization would be the real crime.

The people that the RNC has publicly vilified aren't criminals lurking in the dark. They are our sisters, brothers, fellow church members, and co-workers. We all interact daily with people with felony convictions. Perhaps Gillespie is more threatened by real grassroots voter mobilization than by working with people who have felony convictions in their past.

Robin Templeton is National Director of the Right to Vote Campaign.

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