Episode 5: Excluded from Democracy

Justice In America

The Appeal

News, Politics, Prison, Law, Criminal, Justice, Jail, History, Education, Incarceration, America

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 August 2018

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For an estimated 6.1 million Americans with felony convictions, their punishment extends all the way to the ballot box. In 48 states, people with felony convictions are barred from voting, either temporarily or permanently. And twelve states, including Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wyoming, restrict at least some people’s voting rights—even after they have served their whole sentence, including supervised release.

This episode we go into the history of what is commonly known as felon disenfranchisement. We look at the racist history of disenfranchisement laws and talk about where the laws remain especially restrictive. We also learn more about Desmond Meade, a community leader in Florida, and his fight to win a high-stakes ballot referendum in the state this November.

And we talk to Norris Henderson, the Executive Director of Voices of the Experienced, or VOTE, in New Orleans. Norris is a formerly-incarcerated community leader and advocate, who played a big part in a recent effort to re-enfranchise people in Louisiana. We’ll talk to him about his experience, the uphill battle in Louisiana, and their exciting victory.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	So when people start thinking about what skill sense people have, they don't see us in that same light that the value added.
0:13.2	Oh yeah, he was in prison.
0:14.6	He's a jailhouse lawyer.
0:16.6	But does that translate?
0:18.3	And I would say it translate even more soon
0:20.9	because I know it from both sides. I know it in theory about what
0:25.4	criminal justice is supposed to look like, but then I know it in practice because
0:30.9	I was in one of those cells as opposed to somebody reading the textbook
0:35.4	in the from the justice class trying to expand the people when prisons about. Hey everyone. I'm Clint Smith and I'm
0:53.7	Josey Duffy Rice and this is Justice in America.
0:54.1	Each show we discuss a topic in the American criminal justice system and try to explain
0:58.6	what it is and how it works.
1:00.4	Thank you everyone for joining us today. You can find us on Twitter at
1:04.3	Justice Underscore Podcast. You can like our Facebook page. You can just find us at
1:08.4	Justice in America and subscribe and rate us on iTunes. we would always love to hear from you.
1:14.0	At the top of the show we heard from Norris Henderson,
1:16.4	founder and executive director of Voices of the Experience, or Vote,
1:20.8	and someone who's near and dear to my heart as a fellow New Orlenian I was born and raised in New Orleans and Norris is someone who I become close to and has become close to my family in the important important work that he does.
1:33.6	And today we're talking about something a little bit different.
1:36.3	It's an issue that involves more than just the criminal justice system.
1:39.6	And it's an issue that Norris has been heavily involved in for many many years.
1:43.7	What Norris will tell you later in this episode is that he spent almost 30 years
	...

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