Clemency proving elusive for Florida's ex-cons

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Sun, Oct. 31, 2004



Shanteala Mash helps register voters in her job at
the North Lauderdale Library, but she can't vote
herself. A bad-check felony conviction resulted in the
loss of her civil rights. MARSHA HALPER/HERALD STAFF


A HERALD INVESTIGATION | CIVIL RIGHTS


Clemency proving elusive for Florida's ex-cons

For most felons in Florida, the hope of having their civil rights restored -- including the right to vote -- has been frustrated by an overwhelmed and troubled clemency system.

BY DEBBIE CENZIPER AND JASON GROTTO

[e-mail]


Shanteala Mash was dirt-poor with a 2-year-old son the day she pulled into a bank and tried to cash five stolen checks. The single conviction cost her jail time, a felony record and something else: the right to vote.

Now, she's a 28-year-old library assistant raising two children by herself on a salary of $26,000 a year. But as a convicted felon in Florida, she has been stripped of her civil rights. She can't vote. She can't run for public office. And she can't get a state license to be a nurse, an ambulance driver or even an insect exterminator. Earlier this year, Mash asked the Florida Clemency Board, headed by Gov. Jeb Bush, to restore her rights so she could vote Tuesday for the first time. She hasn't received an answer.

Nearly half a million felons statewide -- more people than live in the city of Miami -- face the same reality. All are tangled in Florida's secretive, laborious and often error-ridden clemency system, the only recourse for ex-cons who want their rights back.

Bush has drawn headlines nationwide for his promise to be more responsive to felons who want to vote again. But on the eve of the presidential election, in a state that bans more people from the polls than any other, the Clemency Board still blocks an overwhelming majority of applicants.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/10059491.htm
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[mzmolly]

1. We need a constitutional ammendment that ANY citizen who wants to vote

has the right to vote!

[flordehinojos]

2. IS NOELLE BUSH ALLOWED TO VOTE?

Does FLORIDA's FIRST LADY, COLUMBA BUSH,interested in voting? Is she, ALSO, ALLOWED TO VOTE?
Is she even interested in voting this election year?

THE BUSHES ARE A BRICK WALL AGAINST OUR DEMOCRACY ... THEY SHOULD WELL REMEMBER HOW THE WALL CAME TUMBLING DOWN IN THE EAST/WEST GERMANY DIVIDE.

[sandnsea]

3. Florida sucks

This state is intentionally saddlng people with felonies to push them out of society. First time offenders are getting felonies??? That's just nuts, most states defer prosecutions and give them a chance to get their lives together. Maybe it's time for a Florida tourism boycott until they get their shit together. Disgusting.

[Mika]

4. Read on - Bushco (Jeb) stepped up the fraud since 2000.

From the Miami Herald story..

But in 1999, when Bush became governor, the board reintroduced Chiles' toughest rules, then added more than 200 crimes to the rules that disqualify felons from getting their rights back without a hearing before the board.

The governor's staff would not say who proposed the changes or why they were made at a time when Florida's crime rate had reached historic lows. The new rules were adopted at the October 1999 Clemency Board meeting with no discussion, no debate.

Bush and the board have since eased some rules, including one that bars felons who owe court costs or traffic fines.

But the board has actually expanded the number of crimes that keep people from getting their rights quickly -- a change that blocks more applicants than any other restriction.

Between 2001 and 2003, The Herald found, the crime rule alone disqualified nearly 27,000 people -- more than half of all newly released felons

But the number of people waiting to make that appeal stands at 4,000 -- triple the number heard by the board in all of the last 16 years.

The Parole Commission requested 20 more staffers for this year to clear cases more quickly.

''Without additional staff,'' officials warned Bush in their 2004 budget request, ``backlogs will continue to increase.''

Bush refused the request. His staff argues that the Parole Commission got 14 new positions in 2002. But five were cut within one year, and the commission says it is still 20 jobs short.

In the weeks leading up to the presidential election, the backlogs grew.

In the last three months alone, the number of people waiting to have their cases reviewed for the quicker clemency process -- meaning without a hearing -- increased by more than 2,000.

Clemency officials, meanwhile, predict that the backlog of felons waiting for a hearing will soar from 4,000 to 14,000 as early as next year if no new clemency investigators and staff members are added.

.

Democracy? My ass.

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. Maybe she should change her name to Chuck Colson

Chuck Colson pardoned by Jeb Bush

Chuck Colson, President Richard Nixon's "hatchet man," recently had his right to practice law, vote and serve on a jury reinstated. Florida's Governor Jeb Bush pardoned Colson, saying, "He certainly has served his time. The crime he committed was a serious one, but I think it's time to move on. I know him. He's a great guy, he's a great Floridian." Colson, who served seven months in a federal prison in 1975 because of his involvement in the Watergate scandal, lost these rights upon becoming a convicted felon.

Colson became a born-again Christian while serving time. Upon release from prison he started Prison Fellowship Ministries, which now has a prominent place in "faith-based action" in the Texas penal system, and may soon go nationwide if President George W. Bush has his way.

© 2001 Institute for First Amendment Studies, Inc.

http://web.archive.org/web/20010228181307/http://www.ifas.org/fw/0101/colson.html