The Sentencing Project: Disenfranchisement News & Updates - 10/11/07

National: Social Justice Groups, Latino Congress Hope to Affect Disenfranchisement In the Summer 2007 issue of the New England Journal on Criminal and Civil Confinement, Avi Brisman argues that environmental organizations "should consider criminal disenfranchisement to be an 'environmental' issue" and that activists "should work with grassroots social justice groups to bring about changes in state criminal disenfranchisement laws and policies." Brisman, an attorney and doctoral student in anthropology at Emory University, contends in "Toward a More Elaborate Typology of Environmental Values: Liberalizing Criminal Disenfranchisement Laws and Policies" that public participation plays an important role in shaping agendas and forming coalitions around environmental issues. The loss of the right to vote for more than five million Americans due to a felony conviction not only affects electoral outcomes, but has a profound impact on the direction of the environmental movement as the voices of potential supporters are lost. Brisman calls for environmental advocates to join together with those people working to reform felony disenfranchisement laws and recognize their common goal. A post-incarceration disenfranchisement resolution submitted by the New York University Law School's Brennan Center for Justice was unanimously passed by the National Latino Congreso during its annual convening in Los Angeles earlier this month. It endorsed the automatic restoration of voting rights to individuals with felony convictions upon their release from prison. The resolution also calls on legislators from the thirty-five states that continue to disenfranchise individuals post-incarceration to enact legislation that will automatically restore voting rights upon release from prison. The final decree of the resolution states, "the organizations represented by delegates of the 2007 National Latino Congreso pledge to support federal legislation that will automatically restore voting rights after release from prison on a national level." International: Still No Guaranteed Right to Vote - Using the Flawed U.S. as a Model While the Australian High Court struck down legislation passed last year stripping all inmates of voting rights, the Court upheld a 2004 law denying the vote to inmates who have been jailed for more than three years. The 4-2 decision restoring some inmates' right to vote in Roach v. Electoral Commissioner was made in August, but the ruling's impact became clear only after the court issued its reasons in late September. As a result, only 8,000 of the country's 20,000 sentenced prisoners can vote in the federal election scheduled later this year. "The judgments make clear there is no legal barrier to the disenfranchisement of significant sectors of the voting population, including 18-21 year- olds and anyone convicted of a crime deemed to be 'serious,'" the Westender reported. Solicitor- General David Bennett, representing the Howard government, suggested Australia could adopt many U.S. states' policy: permanently disenfranchising those imprisoned, even after their sentence had been served. - - - - - - Help The Sentencing Project continue to bring you news and updates on disenfranchisement! Make a contribution today. Contact Information: email: [email protected], web: http://www.sentencingproject.org