By: John Gordon
In the Commonwealth of Virginia, persons convicted of felonies must individually apply for restoration of voting rights, and their applications must be signed by the governor him or herself. In 2017, the Virginia Senate nearly passed an amendment that would permanently deny voting rights to persons convicted of violent felonies, even after release from incarceration. I would advise Virginia, and any other states with similar sanctions, to amend their voting rights. We, as a country, cannot continue to impose these depriving laws, policies, and procedures on such a large percentage of our population. There is a phrase commonly used and heard in the American judicial and penal systems; that an offender must “pay their debt to society”. But in a society that tends to permanently punish those labeled “criminals” for the rest of their lives, demoting them to a second-class that strips them of so many rights, I ask: can the debt truly ever be paid?
The United States of America is supposed to be founded and built upon the foundation of democracy. Democracy, in part, is defined as, “a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.“ [Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition, pg. 331]. Which brings to mind the phrase: for the people, by the people. In 1787 in Philadelphia, representatives of the original Thirteen Colonies signed the Constitution. The writers asserted that the ultimate power of a nation resided in its people, instead of its rulers. But even though Thomas Jefferson stated that “all men are created equal“ in the preceding declaration of independence of 1776, the constitution shows that the equity of man’s creation can dissolve due to one’s life occurrences, When the first article, second section, clearly outlines the difference between the “wholeness“ of a free person and “all the persons“, e.g. “slaves, being defined as only three-fifths of a man. So those now famous three opening words of the Constitution, “We the People”, were obviously not intended to represent everyone in the United States, especially not the poor nor the enslaved. As James Madison put it, the country needed the Constitution “to protect the minority of the opulent against the major majority.” [Gerald Fresia, “Toward an American Revolution: exposing the constitution and other illusions” (1998), pg. 55].
The Civil War ended, emancipating the sleeves, and federal civil rights legislation protecting those newly freed was established, including the 15th amendment, introduced in 1870, which states in section one, “the right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of a race, color or previous condition of servitude.“ Yet we currently see the shift from the enslaved to a new and large demographic of this country’s population being denied the privileges of citizenship: the incarcerated. More specifically, ex-felons and ex-offenders on varying degrees of post conviction release, e.g. those who are on probation, parole, or have outright completed their sentence. The United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, with roughly 2.3 million people behind bars [Prison Policy Institute]; 750 people in prison for every 100,000 adults and children [PEW Center on the States, “One in 100, Behind Bars in America” (2008), pg. 5]. In 2020, states and the Bureau of Prisons had 549,600 prisoners released [Statistical Tables, December 2021], many of whom have returned home and are facing what has been coined as Felony Disenfranchisement; the badge of inferiority not only borrowing them for the ability to vote, but also from even being eligible for health and welfare benefits, food stamps, public housing, educational assistance, or employment.
In “Sonetos”, the Spanish poet and dramatist Luperico Leonardo de Argensola wrote, “ No pain equals that of an injury inflicted under the pretense of a just punishment.“ When incarcerated or there after, I failed to see why a citizen of this country should be disallowed to vote, if or when the offense for which he or she is or was disciplined, has or had nothing to do with politics! The rule of thumb in law is: the punishment (and any lingering effects thereof) should fit the crime. I can understand why a sex offender, apart from his or her sentence, is also banmed while in prison from possessing pornography or sexual stimuli relating to his or her offense, and why Megan’s Law is necessary, requiring him or her to register with a local and/or national board, once released. But why do offenders and/or ex-offenders have to suffer collateral consequences, which, among other things, deemed them unfit to vote, banishing them to a lifetime of shame, contempt, scorn, and exclusion, clarifying that “they“ are no longer a part of “us“?
In conclusion: there needs to be unambiguous national standards regarding prisoner, and act offender voting policy. What differentiates an offender or ex offender in Virginia from one in Pennsylvania? I am only aware of two states, Maine and Vermont, that allows prisoners to vote. Most states do not allow parolees to vote, and even after the term of sentencing ends, some states still deny the ability to vote for a certain number of years, or even for the rest of one’s life. This disempowerment runs contrary to the idea of “second chances”. If one thinks that prison should aim at rehabilitation, then retaining the right to vote is essential; removing it is dehumanizing. By cutting offenders and ex-offenders out of the political conversation, society loses out on the potential insight they could provide public policy, would greatly benefit by involving those most affected by the social determinants of crime, and those most familiar with the workings of both the criminal and restorative justice systems. Exclusion of prisoners and ex-offenders in results in a class of citizens who are subject to the rules of laws of the United States, but voiceless to how they are governed – not unlike “taxation without representation”.
John Gordon is an offender currently serving (and appealing) a life without the possibility of parole sentence for a crime he didn’t commit. This writing is an essay he submitted that gained him acceptance into the Villanova program at a CI Phoenix, where Villanova university offers a degree program to achieve a bachelor of art degree in liberal arts. John can be contacted via snail mail:
Smart Communications / PADOC
John Gordon / #DA 1774 / SCI Phoenix
PO Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL 33733
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NAME: John Gordon / NUMBER: DA 1774 / FACILITY: ‘PA’ – All Pennsylvania Facilities’
**This essay was transcribed to post here. The goal was to accurately transcribe with the same capitalization, quotations, and punctuation. However, some mistakes may have been missed.