The Obama Administration Wants 6 Million Americans to Get Back Their Right to Vote. Here's How.

[babylonsister]

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/02/felony-convictions-voting-rights-black-american-african-disenfranchisement


The Obama Administration Wants 6 Million Americans to Get Back Their Right to Vote. Here's How.

—By Nina Liss-Schultz
| Thu Feb. 13, 2014 3:00 AM GMT



On Tuesday morning, Attorney General Eric Holder made a plea to states to overturn laws barring people convicted of felonies from voting. "It is unwise, it is unjust, and it is not in keeping with our democratic values. These laws deserve to be not only reconsidered, but repealed," he said at a criminal justice symposium in Washington, DC. "And the current scope of these policies is not too significant to ignore—it is also too unjust to tolerate."

As the New York Times pointed out, Holder's comments were largely symbolic, since he doesn't have the authority to personally enact changes. Regardless, Holder called attention to a huge, largely overlooked demographic. So what's the lay of the land when it comes to felony disenfranchisement laws? Here are some facts to help clarify the issue.

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The number of felons without voting rights has ballooned significantly along with the growing prison population. The United States has the world's highest rate of incarceration: Department of Justice statistics show that the number of people under correctional supervision has increased from under 2 million in 1980 to over 7 million by 2011. As a result, the number of disenfranchised felons has grown from 1.17 million in 1976 to 5.85 million by 2010, and at a rate of 500 percent since 1980.

Who gets the brunt of these laws? Felony disenfranchisement disproportionately affects people of color. Black men are incarcerated at a much higher rate than the rest of the population. According to the Urban Institute, 11.4 percent of African American men aged 20-34 were in prison in 2008, compared with just 1.8 percent of white men. One out of every 13 black Americans of voting age can't vote due to criminal disenfranchisement laws, a number much higher than for any other demographic. This ratio is more stark in Florida, Kentucky, and Virginia, where more than one in five black adults is barred from the polls. Overall, 2.2 million black Americans have lost the right to vote because of felony disenfranchisement laws.

"The impact of felony disenfranchisement on modern communities of color remains both disproportionate and unacceptable," Holder said on Tuesday. "These individuals and many others—of all races, backgrounds, and walks of life—are routinely denied the chance to participate in the most fundamental and important act of self-governance."

[Jefferson23]

1. Good for them, they will take a hit for this from the GOP, for obvious reasons.

This subject has many tentacles to it, race, private prison profits...issues that need fixing.

Go for it.