Black History Month 2011 has come and gone. But history will be made today when formerly incarcerated people and their allies march across the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge and demand “voting rights for all.”
According to the Sentencing Project an estimated 5.3 million Americans, including 13 percent of black men, have been stripped of the right to vote. Sure, they did the crime. But they also did the time. To deny the formerly incarcerated the right to vote is cruel and unusual punishment.
Today's march will bring attention to ex-felon disenfranchisement and the structural barriers to reentry:
The gathering – called by and for formerly incarcerated people and people with criminal convictions – is the first of its kind in the United States. Representatives from nearly 30 states will gather to establish a national agenda for securing the civil and human rights for the tens of millions people in the U.S. living in prison or jails, on parole or probation, or with a criminal conviction.
Prisoner reentry was a focus of a forum, “Investing in Communities of Color,” hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and Rep. Danny K. Davis on the last day of Black History Month. The panelists included Amy Solomon of the U.S. Department of Justice, who observed:
We're punishing people for too long.
Solomon shared some sobering numbers:
- 1 in 100 U.S. adults behind bars
- 1 in 15 African American men incarcerated
- 95% will be returned to the community
- 2 in 3 released prisoners will be rearrested within 3 years
- 1 in 9 African American children has a parent incarcerated
- U.S. spends $68 billion annually on corrections
- A large number of incarcerated people come from – and return to – a relatively small number of already disadvantaged neighborhoods.
She said Attorney General Eric Holder is “personally disturbed by these numbers and has made reentry a priority at the Department of Justice.”
Given the public safety implications of prisoner reentry, and the societal and economic costs, today's march to restore the full civil rights of formerly incarcerated people is a step in the right direction.
For more info about the march and tomorrow's rally at the statehouse in Montgomery, contact The Ordinary People Society and All or None of Us.
For info about prisoner reentry, visit the National Reentry Resource Center.
