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VA: Restore the right of felons to vote

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

Restore the right of felons to vote Edward Hailes Jr. Hailes is a senior attorney at Advancement Project, a national civil rights organization in Washington, D.C. No single existing voting-rights inequity seems a starker injustice than the plight of people with felony convictions. These people, of course, aren't just murderers and muggers. Three out of every five felony convictions don't lead to jail time, and there's no clear line you have to cross to earn one. Taking away the right to vote for life is analogous, some commentators have suggested, to the medieval practice of "civil death," where severe violations of society's social code led to complete loss of citizenship rights. Contrary to popular belief, felony disenfranchisement laws are not part of the criminal justice system...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on July 24, 2008 (boomark / email).