Felon Disenfranchisement

[Dill]

(04-23-2018, 02:01 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: So, this is a long(ish) read, but it is the most recent working draft (number 3 or 4, I forget) or an essay I am writing that is a call to action for Southerners. I wanted to share it because I talk about some of the themes we have had come up in the thread and because this is what I have been thinking about lately that caused me to start the thread. A lot of the sources you can find by searching online (or following the URL), but some of them are academic ones behind a paywall. If you are really interested in them, I could attach them.

Like what you are doing here, and your recognition that racially discriminatory laws in the U.S. must be crafted to EXCLUDE reference to race. Hence the increasing use of demographic data to determine which groups laws most likely impact.

Have you checked out the Sentencing Project?

I have a question for you, beyond race, how do you account for the punitive impulse--the desire to keep a kind of scarlet letter on offenders permanently?  Anyone in your research address or speculate about that?  I am guessing it has a religious character.

Another question--in my post above I mentioned Florida's problem with selective re-enfranchisement. Have you looked into that at all?  While technically Florida is a total "civil death" state, it has for over a decade allowed felons to re-apply for voting rights.  The program was looking good until the present governor.