I never understood why anyone discussed the weather at length but when it's as bizarre as ours, I think it needs to be discussed. It's been like this since I moved to Anchorage in 1980-- but every year I am shocked. Our weather is cold for a bit, then freezing our tails off cold for a bit longer, then it warms up and rains, then snows, then nosedives into cold weather again. It's just not fun. We have green grass sprouting right now, mud puddles in the yard, and it's no fun. You can't send the kids out to play in it because it's not snow boot weather-- snow boots get caked with mud, but rubber boots are too slick. (I'm not discussing, I'm complaining!)
My brain is shorting out on me. Forgive my sentence fragments. I'm doing school work with Calamity Jane singing and trying to play Honkey Tonk Angels on her guitar (she's not good yet) and Mudd banging on a drum and singing Twinkle Twinkle. Calamity is funny because she knows nothing small. No Home on the Range for this kid, she goes for imitating Dolly Parton and k.d. lang and the finest. . . oddly this is what her mother listens to! Starshine likes to clap to the music, and she actually keeps time pretty well. Mudd? He deliberately gets out of sync. He's funny, too.
Peaches is gone. She can't handle high school. She signed herself out the other day-- she is 18 and can do this. She has all the credits that she needs to graduate. My husband wants her to stick around, but she is being obnoxious and texting me at midnight saying that she won't be home. I don't know what she has here now. She wanted to take me out for coffee, but I am afraid I will say something hurtful. After she accused me of only wanting her around for her dad's money, I don't know what boundaries she has or what consideration she feels up to showing. Don't get mad-- just love them. I dealt with worse on internships.
Now we are in the next phase of parenting. Cloud is going into her high school soon, and Guy is entering middle school. The next 5 years will be about getting the younger set up and ready to launch as well as getting the tiny babies into reading and being active. We have an insane sporting season coming up and I am tying up my classes.
I am at a loss on what to do sans child support, but my husband says we'll make it. I can't work-- they get sick and need someone home with them. Child support is an issue, but it wasn't why I wanted my daughter home. She says she wants to make her own mistakes-- on that one, you just back off. "Ok, make'm."
At my Facebook, I have encountered the kids who lived on my street who I grew up with. They were my brother's friends, but they'd come home and I'd already be there and I'd be baking cookies or brownies. They are very, very successful and I felt silly telling them about what I am up to, but they razzed me and are more interested in my work with a volunteer radio station. They remember me stuttering and getting into speech and debate.
I was apparently in indirect Cupid for a marriage! It was funny as my parents were selling their house and at this point I was 21 or so and back home post divorce. A very articulate woman called and asked about the house and we connected over the phone—I really liked her and she liked me, too. Right before she came over, a smarmy guy called and asked if we’d be willing to sell to “Japs.” I was ticked because of his term and asked if he was trying to get me into legal trouble because it was illegal to discriminate, then I started talking really fast at him, using my words like stones and hopefully maimed him for a week! He was calling from some place in Vegas and was just smarmy. She showed up right after that and I was still FUMING. I told her why. She happened to be Black and I was like, “You are human! If the money is green, you qualify.”
She kissed my cheek and said, “This is the house I want to buy. Bring me the papers.” I told her that she had to see the flaws by law and besides, my dad would kill me if I let her sign without knowing so she followed me around and signed a promise to buy right there. She was looking at the paperwork while I canceled other appointments for that afternoon.
I called a friend who said, “Her husband is White. She’s faced discrimination.” I told my friend she was full of it (she was White and married to a Black man and EVERYTHING was a racial issue to her) and she said, “You were set up by the phone call—she wanted to see if you were friendly and you passed the test with an A+.”
Sure enough, that night she signed the actual papers and said, “I want you to see my family!” and showed us a photograph. I started laughing and told her what my friend had said. Well, she had faced discrimination. My ‘hood was all white, upper class, and they are upper class—but neighbors would make some snide remarks to my father later. Well, their daughter married my brother's best friend who lived next door! She is beautiful-- and this guy is so laid back and nice.
One of the other friends who contacted me was into economics and now teaches. His brother is a lawyer, another friend lives nearby and instead of balking when I teased him that I'd dump my kids at his place, he said he'd coach them! These are people who I used to ride bikes with late into the night and watch them play basketball (my eye-hand coordination is nonexistent due to my vision) and they played sports with my baby brother. The brothers gave me a clock for my first wedding. The clock is long gone but I have replaced it and it is still "the clock that ___ and ___ gave me." I have thought of them all often in the past 15 years, but that clock made me think of those two in particular a lot.
The other day I received a note from a prof whose class I'd highlighted in my paper. She'd prayed for 10 students-- she got 18 signed up for her class, thanks to my help. She is a really wonderful person and she is very gifted-- I'm very happy that so many took the class!
I went with my church to the prison this past week. I'd been thinking of one of our ladies from Kairos and a lady knew her and let me know that she is in The Hole-- solitary confinement. They are put into a room alone with just a Bible.How the Hell does anyone read a Bible? Without understanding it is impossible and just words. She deserves to be there, but how they do the solitary confinement doesn't help the person out. Who decides how long they be there? They don't have any set guidelines as far as anyone knows-- it creates a psychological mess for the person.
I feel like a catalyst-- I don't know how long I will stay with my church group. Too many of us makes us too eager to talk to offenders. At the same time, if I am on a rotation I can't commit because I have other things to do. Still, I get with things, connect situations like getting my church into the prison, and then seem to need to move on.
Showing posts with label prison reform. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prison reform. Show all posts
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
About the Topic of Prisons. . .
I really wish that with the need of our prisoners to reduce recidivism rates that one of the wives of some of the recent Alaskan politicians who've been sent to federal prisons would get off their fucking lazy asses and form a political action committee. They could mobilize the families of prisoners to form a group that votes and then grab the attention of politicians who write laws and establish the rights of prisoners and make their voices heard.
One of my husbands' friends is married to a guy who was a corrections officer in Michigan. With the recent budget cuts, a MAXIMUM security prison has no armed guards around the perimeter of the prison! The prisoners know this. The ones who want to go in and never go back and not perp on one another are at the mercy of the prisoners who are there to stay. They have no recreation programs and they have to depend on volunteers. Look, I freak out at my female yearlies and couldn't even get through the last one and went home in tears. When I go into a prison, knowing that I may be subject to a search if they suspect anything, I am terrified. This isn't a volunteer job for pansies. You can't get a lot of volunteers in this. For governments to have the attitude of cutting the prison funding and hoping they can get "free" help from the community is sick and wrong. But then. . . who do you cut help for in the face of budget cuts? The elderly? School kids? Medical care for the working classes? This is why this vulnerable population needs representation.
Why do we have a 75% or higher rate of recidivism? They need recreational programs and counseling in an environment that is scary! If one of these wives would just stand up and form a group, she'd get criticism, then she'd be heard. (They can't criticize if they don't pay attention to you.)
With federal prisoners, I think it is as bad. Same needs. I also think all prisoners need conjugal visits with spouses so they can yes, have sex. It's a great behavioral stimulation and I think that depriving someone of sex for anything longer than six months is a crime. On Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, sex is at the base with needing water and air.
I'm on a tangent here. If a politician's wife got a support group going, she could also address the needs of many of the spouses struggling with poverty, medical care, child care and all the other evils that families deal with. She'd have to accept that people say stupid and cruel things and persevere. I think that politicians are like pageant princesses-- it's to look like you are doing something while being glamorous. We need politicians with a different mettle, who if they screw up, their spouses are going to take a stand, not fold like a bad hand.
By sticking their perfectly coiffed heads in the sand, the wives are not accomplishing some good that only they have the power and the voice to accomplish. Their husbands already have fame-- it is notoriety, but it can be turned into good. It's not about their spouses being guilty or innocent-- it's about them seeing where things are bad and shining their light to make it better.
One of my husbands' friends is married to a guy who was a corrections officer in Michigan. With the recent budget cuts, a MAXIMUM security prison has no armed guards around the perimeter of the prison! The prisoners know this. The ones who want to go in and never go back and not perp on one another are at the mercy of the prisoners who are there to stay. They have no recreation programs and they have to depend on volunteers. Look, I freak out at my female yearlies and couldn't even get through the last one and went home in tears. When I go into a prison, knowing that I may be subject to a search if they suspect anything, I am terrified. This isn't a volunteer job for pansies. You can't get a lot of volunteers in this. For governments to have the attitude of cutting the prison funding and hoping they can get "free" help from the community is sick and wrong. But then. . . who do you cut help for in the face of budget cuts? The elderly? School kids? Medical care for the working classes? This is why this vulnerable population needs representation.
Why do we have a 75% or higher rate of recidivism? They need recreational programs and counseling in an environment that is scary! If one of these wives would just stand up and form a group, she'd get criticism, then she'd be heard. (They can't criticize if they don't pay attention to you.)
With federal prisoners, I think it is as bad. Same needs. I also think all prisoners need conjugal visits with spouses so they can yes, have sex. It's a great behavioral stimulation and I think that depriving someone of sex for anything longer than six months is a crime. On Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, sex is at the base with needing water and air.
I'm on a tangent here. If a politician's wife got a support group going, she could also address the needs of many of the spouses struggling with poverty, medical care, child care and all the other evils that families deal with. She'd have to accept that people say stupid and cruel things and persevere. I think that politicians are like pageant princesses-- it's to look like you are doing something while being glamorous. We need politicians with a different mettle, who if they screw up, their spouses are going to take a stand, not fold like a bad hand.
By sticking their perfectly coiffed heads in the sand, the wives are not accomplishing some good that only they have the power and the voice to accomplish. Their husbands already have fame-- it is notoriety, but it can be turned into good. It's not about their spouses being guilty or innocent-- it's about them seeing where things are bad and shining their light to make it better.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
The Prison Ministry
Today I went to my training for a prison ministry. I really like the women who I work with but I find part of it intimidating. I do not get into evangelical praying. It came time for me to pray and I was like, "Oh dear. What do I say?" I was mellifluous and prayed long and loudly. I don't get it. When Orthodox Christians pray, we have some direct prayers. Some are long but I don't think that God gets into long prayers. I felt really silly telling God how great He is and mimicking my fellow attendants by reminding Him of how He parted the Sea and delivered His children from Israel, caused the frog plague on Pharaoh-- the frog plague was cool, etc. and will he please make this successful and bless our guests and bless us, start in on more how great God is, go back into it. It mentally taxing! I really wanted to say, "You keep my car running! You gave us life! Surely this is easier to help us get more money to get this running!" Or. . . simply ask and pray and meditate quietly.
A long time ago a rabbi told me that we pray because even though G-d knows what we need, it's like we are sitting at a table and you need to ask your host for things because he doesn't otherwise know you are hungry. "The fish is delicious! Will you please pass some more to me?" is different from, "Your home is so lovely, you work so hard for this party, you did a great fundraiser last year for the dance ensemble to go to England. . .I just really appreciate. . .and won't you please pass the fish down here?" It sounds like I am making fun of people who pray like this but I am not: for now it is just soooooo uncomfortable. At the next training I will be better.
I get to give a discussion on living as a Christian and keeping the Word in your heart and in your actions and life. As a mother, I pray constantly. The older my kids get, the more faithful I get. I pray in my mind as I cook, I pray when I drive not because I am a bad driver but because there is so much that can go wrong that doesn't. I read my Bible quite often-- both Testaments. I can discuss this pretty easily. The book on this also has tips on what to say. "All the honor of the daughter of the King is within." -Psalm 45:14
We had some political people drop by the house today to ask who we are supporting. I asked about their candidates' support of prison reform and reform on the court system and they said their men would deal with it better than the Republicans which is true.
I mentioned my prison work to several politicians a while back. Would you believe that only the Democrats asked me about it later? It's very frustrating because they actually care about it! This isn't bleeding heart liberal stuff-- I knwo thatmany who are incarcerated should be there, but I think that prisons need to be set up for punishment for the offender but also allowing them to return to their families. Conjugal visits? Yes-- I keep hearing how sexually charged they are and I think that people who have visits with spouses keep the spouses closer and less likely to fool around, and also allow the offenders to get the needed physical touch even if it's just once a month. Of course in the ministry I am not an advocate for the prisons, but my interest has pulled me to this. I believe that voting family members need to connect and form a grass roots effort to get the lawmakers attention and push for reforms. I have spoken to corrections officers who feel the same way, but they have said that they have to keep control at all times so whatever I push for, they need to be able to keep control.
I think that it was Reagan's period when the political parties polarized. Now I think that is changing. I know and respect a local politician who is pro-life and I am proud of his stance. There are a ton of Christian Democrats. Democrats for homeschooling (that need sot be worked on) and Democrats supporting business.
Now that I've rambled, I have to close. I have vespers and I need to study.
A long time ago a rabbi told me that we pray because even though G-d knows what we need, it's like we are sitting at a table and you need to ask your host for things because he doesn't otherwise know you are hungry. "The fish is delicious! Will you please pass some more to me?" is different from, "Your home is so lovely, you work so hard for this party, you did a great fundraiser last year for the dance ensemble to go to England. . .I just really appreciate. . .and won't you please pass the fish down here?" It sounds like I am making fun of people who pray like this but I am not: for now it is just soooooo uncomfortable. At the next training I will be better.
I get to give a discussion on living as a Christian and keeping the Word in your heart and in your actions and life. As a mother, I pray constantly. The older my kids get, the more faithful I get. I pray in my mind as I cook, I pray when I drive not because I am a bad driver but because there is so much that can go wrong that doesn't. I read my Bible quite often-- both Testaments. I can discuss this pretty easily. The book on this also has tips on what to say. "All the honor of the daughter of the King is within." -Psalm 45:14
We had some political people drop by the house today to ask who we are supporting. I asked about their candidates' support of prison reform and reform on the court system and they said their men would deal with it better than the Republicans which is true.
I mentioned my prison work to several politicians a while back. Would you believe that only the Democrats asked me about it later? It's very frustrating because they actually care about it! This isn't bleeding heart liberal stuff-- I knwo thatmany who are incarcerated should be there, but I think that prisons need to be set up for punishment for the offender but also allowing them to return to their families. Conjugal visits? Yes-- I keep hearing how sexually charged they are and I think that people who have visits with spouses keep the spouses closer and less likely to fool around, and also allow the offenders to get the needed physical touch even if it's just once a month. Of course in the ministry I am not an advocate for the prisons, but my interest has pulled me to this. I believe that voting family members need to connect and form a grass roots effort to get the lawmakers attention and push for reforms. I have spoken to corrections officers who feel the same way, but they have said that they have to keep control at all times so whatever I push for, they need to be able to keep control.
I think that it was Reagan's period when the political parties polarized. Now I think that is changing. I know and respect a local politician who is pro-life and I am proud of his stance. There are a ton of Christian Democrats. Democrats for homeschooling (that need sot be worked on) and Democrats supporting business.
Now that I've rambled, I have to close. I have vespers and I need to study.
Friday, August 22, 2008
A Graduation Behind Bars
I went out to Correctional Facility a few weeks ago for their graduation as an assignment with my college paper. I'm editing and I have no reporters yet, I wanted a story so I went. Several years ago I cared for a woman's pets while she was incarcerated there and I hyperventilated when I was greeted by a shadow person behind a smoke glass screen. His voice was electronically distorted and out of the kindness of his mostly cynical heart he came out and got me outside and comforted me while I ranted at how inhuman he had seemed, then burst into tears some more when I looked up and saw a woman pushing her child on a swing behind barbed wire. (Darrin said that it hadn't helped that I'd been obsessive over Solzhenitsyn and Orwell during the previous six months.) The guard knew that the woman I was seeing "needed" to see me for her own sake so he assured me that I'd not be entrapped if the electricity went out and how it would work if the back-up generators didn't work so I could still leave. The guard was not bad, and he seemed genuinely concerned for me. Darrin thinks that I was so obviously out of my element and that he probably just wanted the best possible outcome for both of our sakes.
When I took the kids camping, we drove down that road and past the facility and I got constriction in my throat. Almost ten years had passed yet my body reacted! I never forgot how scary it was and over the years, I had nightmares about it. In college, it was easy for the human services majors to make terrible jokes about prisons and I would stand up for them and remind them what they were doing to a disenfranchised population and just making it worse. I'd pray over it, because I'd sometimes wake up thinking about it, not, "Oh those poor people!" but, "Why am I waking up thinking of this?" Can't I be woken up to think about fashion or great story ideas that will make me rich and a generous philanthropist?
The greatest battles that we fight are never seen. Going that day was one of those for me. I knew what to expect but I was still worried about hyperventilating and my husband couldn't take time out of work to drive me there. I went in and laughed right of the bat because the correctional officer (they get upset if you call them guards) said on her speaker phone, "T.N Crumpet from the SmallTown College Gazette-- whatever that is." (I really need to make our little paper better known!)
My lawyer friend had warned me about inmates who'd committed severely terrible crimes being able to pull the wool over people's eyes by being extremely friendly. I met some offenders who we've read about in the paper who are really not very nice people. They were sweet and very funny in person. I understood what my beloved friend was talking about. I met some truly amazing people who went to speak, who are huge in education. Their orchestra played a beautiful rendition of Pomp and Circumstance. A former prison chaplain and I spoke at length and she asked me to consider joining a prison ministry because she'd not been able to get an Orthodox Christian to be a part of it and there were several inmates who needed us. She burst out laughing when I exclaimed, "What? You have Russian Orthodox? In here?"
"Hmmm, a little self righteous, are we?"
I told her that it wasn't that-- it was just that the people who I know obsess and flagellate about sinning over minor thoughts, not committing actual crimes! (I think that a substantial portion are also on antidepressants, but that is only my opinion.) Well, it's not always like that, she explained. I need to actually go to church regularly so that I can bring my faith with me and know more, but it seems like something I may like. I'm considering it. She knew my favorite Presbyterian minister. It was great to talk to her.
I also spoke to the man who runs the institution, a Mr. M. He looked at me oddly but not in a gross way, like he was looking through me or at other things about me. I wonder what he has been trained to look at on people that normal people don't see. He seemed pleasant, and not as stressed at high school principals that I know. His interaction with the inmates was friendly-- one inmate wanted to show me a dog that she is training and he said, "What are you doin' bringing that dog around her? Will you show her how he eats voles then wants to lick everyone?" She told him, "He has learned a new trick!" (That dog was smart!) He and a correctional officer told me that they are role models to the inmates and explained how that facility is NOT typical in that it is much more laid back and friendly because they have this radical view that people are more likely to mend their ways if they are under less stress. They are removed from society to protect society, and they are punished for what they are convicted of, but they also have mandatory classes and training and are encouraged to change. The correctional officers are pretty-- they wear make-up and are friendly. Of course one told me that it was a graduation day and it was special, nicer than normal, but it was always hell because inmates couldn't leave. They are regulated and are told when to go to bed, what chores they can do, and some thrive, but a certain percentage will get out and recommit and be right back. I met one inmate who said that she'd been in and out for years. I never asked what she did, but she is looking forward to a release this week and just getting a job to make ends meet, but she'll be free and along with that comes the good and the bad. What makes me happy to see is that the incarcerated will leave having been removed from Society, but will go back having not been processed by an uncaring system.
I found out that there are places that inmates can access for education money, but I may not write about them. We live in a society that feels a sense of entitlement and there are a lot of people who might say, "Well, I had to pay for my education and he broke the constitution! Why does he get free money for school?" I met some wonderful teachers who are very dedicated to their work there and truly love waking up and going to work.
My first draft had my paper manager shaking his head at me. (I get that a lot no matter what I do!) He said that I made it look like a Vaccation Destination and that I will have readers committing petty crimes with the hope of getting sent there. I need to wait another week or two and fix it up.
Am I being told what I want to hear? I really wanted to like the place and be assured that people could be rehabilitated there. I don't think that people coming out would be angry at the society that put them there, given how they seemed treated.
When I took the kids camping, we drove down that road and past the facility and I got constriction in my throat. Almost ten years had passed yet my body reacted! I never forgot how scary it was and over the years, I had nightmares about it. In college, it was easy for the human services majors to make terrible jokes about prisons and I would stand up for them and remind them what they were doing to a disenfranchised population and just making it worse. I'd pray over it, because I'd sometimes wake up thinking about it, not, "Oh those poor people!" but, "Why am I waking up thinking of this?" Can't I be woken up to think about fashion or great story ideas that will make me rich and a generous philanthropist?
The greatest battles that we fight are never seen. Going that day was one of those for me. I knew what to expect but I was still worried about hyperventilating and my husband couldn't take time out of work to drive me there. I went in and laughed right of the bat because the correctional officer (they get upset if you call them guards) said on her speaker phone, "T.N Crumpet from the SmallTown College Gazette-- whatever that is." (I really need to make our little paper better known!)
My lawyer friend had warned me about inmates who'd committed severely terrible crimes being able to pull the wool over people's eyes by being extremely friendly. I met some offenders who we've read about in the paper who are really not very nice people. They were sweet and very funny in person. I understood what my beloved friend was talking about. I met some truly amazing people who went to speak, who are huge in education. Their orchestra played a beautiful rendition of Pomp and Circumstance. A former prison chaplain and I spoke at length and she asked me to consider joining a prison ministry because she'd not been able to get an Orthodox Christian to be a part of it and there were several inmates who needed us. She burst out laughing when I exclaimed, "What? You have Russian Orthodox? In here?"
"Hmmm, a little self righteous, are we?"
I told her that it wasn't that-- it was just that the people who I know obsess and flagellate about sinning over minor thoughts, not committing actual crimes! (I think that a substantial portion are also on antidepressants, but that is only my opinion.) Well, it's not always like that, she explained. I need to actually go to church regularly so that I can bring my faith with me and know more, but it seems like something I may like. I'm considering it. She knew my favorite Presbyterian minister. It was great to talk to her.
I also spoke to the man who runs the institution, a Mr. M. He looked at me oddly but not in a gross way, like he was looking through me or at other things about me. I wonder what he has been trained to look at on people that normal people don't see. He seemed pleasant, and not as stressed at high school principals that I know. His interaction with the inmates was friendly-- one inmate wanted to show me a dog that she is training and he said, "What are you doin' bringing that dog around her? Will you show her how he eats voles then wants to lick everyone?" She told him, "He has learned a new trick!" (That dog was smart!) He and a correctional officer told me that they are role models to the inmates and explained how that facility is NOT typical in that it is much more laid back and friendly because they have this radical view that people are more likely to mend their ways if they are under less stress. They are removed from society to protect society, and they are punished for what they are convicted of, but they also have mandatory classes and training and are encouraged to change. The correctional officers are pretty-- they wear make-up and are friendly. Of course one told me that it was a graduation day and it was special, nicer than normal, but it was always hell because inmates couldn't leave. They are regulated and are told when to go to bed, what chores they can do, and some thrive, but a certain percentage will get out and recommit and be right back. I met one inmate who said that she'd been in and out for years. I never asked what she did, but she is looking forward to a release this week and just getting a job to make ends meet, but she'll be free and along with that comes the good and the bad. What makes me happy to see is that the incarcerated will leave having been removed from Society, but will go back having not been processed by an uncaring system.
I found out that there are places that inmates can access for education money, but I may not write about them. We live in a society that feels a sense of entitlement and there are a lot of people who might say, "Well, I had to pay for my education and he broke the constitution! Why does he get free money for school?" I met some wonderful teachers who are very dedicated to their work there and truly love waking up and going to work.
My first draft had my paper manager shaking his head at me. (I get that a lot no matter what I do!) He said that I made it look like a Vaccation Destination and that I will have readers committing petty crimes with the hope of getting sent there. I need to wait another week or two and fix it up.
Am I being told what I want to hear? I really wanted to like the place and be assured that people could be rehabilitated there. I don't think that people coming out would be angry at the society that put them there, given how they seemed treated.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Felons: the New Swing Voters
Civil rights activists going after felon vote
Push to register thousands long disenfranchised
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Herbert Pompey had gone through rehab, stayed sober, held a job, married and started a landscaping business in the two years since he walked out of Taylor Correctional Institution. But what Pompey hadn't done - and what he assumed a string of felony drug and drunken-driving convictions would keep him from ever doing again - was vote.
So his pulse quickened when civil rights lawyer Reggie Mitchell called to tell him that his rights had been restored.
"You're eligible to vote now, Mr. Pompey," Mitchell said, calmly relaying the news. "Can I bring you a voter-registration card?"
Pompey whispered, "Lord, you was listening."
Mitchell smiled - he had gotten another felon back on the rolls.
Mitchell is a leader of a disparate group of low-level Democrats and civil rights activists trying to register tens of thousands of newly eligible felons. They have taken up the cause on their own, motivated by the belief that former offenders have been unfairly disenfranchised for decades.
Despite massive registration efforts, the presidential campaigns of Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama have not designated anyone to go after those prospective voters.
In Alabama, Al Sharpton's younger brother, the Rev. Kenneth Glasgow, will take his "Prodigal Son" ministry into state prisons with voter-registration cards for the first time. The American Civil Liberties Union recently filed suit there and in Tennessee to make it possible for an even larger class of felons to register.
In Ohio, the NAACP will conduct a voter-registration day at the Justice Center in downtown Cleveland next month to register "people caught up in the criminal justice system," a local official said. In California, a team will stand in front of jails Saturday to register people visiting prisoners and encourage them to take registration cards to their incarcerated friends or family members, some of whom can legally vote.
"This is a voting block that has never been open before, and it has opened up at such a time as this," said Glasgow, who was a felon himself.
In Florida, a change in the law last year has made more than 115,000 felons eligible to vote, according to the Florida Parole Commission. In other states, local civil rights and criminal justice groups estimate there are similar numbers who have not registered.
All but two states - Maine and Vermont - have laws that limit voting rights for people with felony convictions. Some felons are banned from voting until they have completed parole and paid restitution, others for life. Kentucky and Virginia have the most restrictive laws, denying all felons the right to vote, though Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine, a Democrat, has encouraged non-violent offenders to apply to have their rights restored.
Generally, though, restoring voting rights has hit resistance from all directions. Not wanting to appear soft on crime, Democratic and Republican leaders have not aggressively pursued the issue. In Florida, black state legislators led the fight for a decade before populist Republican Gov. Charlie Crist pushed through the change shortly after being elected in 2006. The legislation permits many non-violent felons to vote as long as they have no charges pending, have paid restitution and have completed probation.
Mark Bubriski, Obama's spokesman in Florida, said the felon vote "could certainly swing an election, but there are millions and millions of voters." Bubriski added that finding ex-offenders can be hard to do, and that "there's also the perception, for some reason, that they are all black and all Democrats, and that's certainly not the case."
The majority of felons in the state are white, and there are no studies on ex-offenders' party affiliation. Yet, black men are disproportionately incarcerated and disenfranchised, which Mitchell sees as a civil rights issue. Before the law changed, nearly a third of the state's black men were banned from voting, according to the Florida chapter of the ACLU.~~~~~
Tea Speaks
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I am not a person who is soft on crime-- the husband of a close friend was recently killed and I like to see bad guys kept off the streets. One of my best friends from high school got out of the fed pen 18 months ago (corporate corruption) and we have resumed our friendship which has been a nice thing. (I spoke to him of my finances and he was able to advise me. It was what Darrin had said but he spoke in a way that wasn't condescending, and even told me how to agree with my husband without feeling like I had lost face.)
This being said, I think that once a person is convicted and serves his or her time, they become tax paying citizens and should get the same rights as everyone else. My friend from school gets to vote again in 3 years and he can't wait. I believe that when you disenfranchise a group that it becomes powerless. Once a person is out of a half-way house, they are still on probation and still need to earn a living. In an area like my city, that poses a problem because we have a housing shortage. Four guys from a halfway house can't get a place together because they are not supposed to fraternize with former convicts. How do they survive? Rent is about $850 for a one bedroom apartment on a bus line. They can't pay rent and child support and utilities with a $10 an hour job, they can't get state or student loans, and they are pretty much cut off from a decent lifestyle as no one wants to hire them or promote them.
I think that by allowing ex offenders to vote will bring a voice to them and that their needs will be looked at and that laws will be made to make their road easier and they will have a chance to make a living, too.
I realize that when it comes to civil rights, a rapist takes away the right of his victim, as of course does a murderer or a person who beats someone up-- and it goes on. That being said, I know what at least some in MY STATE go through and the politicians have not made it easy on ex offenders getting back into society. It is easy for politicians to take away from this group because so many people can casually say, "Lock'm/er up and throw away the key!" before hearing what has happened. Who questions how judges show evidence to juries and the laws that allow that? Politicians are not committed to creating laws for judges or lawyers to follow that maintain a foundation for a fair trial; a rich person will not throw him or herself at the mercy of the court in our country. Maybe this is what is needed.
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