Felony disenfranchisement is a crime

One of the primary reasons that the courts and legislators are so indifferent to prisoners’ rights is because we are a group of mainly nonwhites or poor whites who lack the ability to vote for or against judges, prosecutors and legislators. 

Each year for the last couple of decades, bills have been presented to the General Assembly to lower the 85 percent mandatory minimums or to give eligibility to those serving life without parole. Yet these bills rarely even make it out of committee. This is because the state legislators are concerned only with their constituents, i.e., those who can vote them in/out of office, and those who contribute to their campaigns.

Imagine for a moment how government officials would react to our legitimate concerns when, instead of dealing with 32,000 prisoners in Missouri, they are dealing with 32,000 voting citizens who happen to be in prison. Add to that another 68,000 voting citizens on probation and parole, as well as our friends, families and allies.

How would this affect the governor’s appointment of a director of Corrections? Or his appointments to the Missouri Supreme Court? How many legislators would visit the prisons during campaign season to make sure that they are up to international human rights standards?

Also remember that as registered voters we would then be constitutionally allowed to file and sign initiative petitions ourselves to change unfair parole guidelines, excessive sentencing laws, sweatshop prison wages, etc.

Felony disenfranchisement is an issue of national importance. It affects much more than criminal justice issues. Some 6 million Americans cannot vote due to felony disenfranchisement. Those votes could change the balance of power in the U.S., affecting everything from education and labor to trade and commerce.

If we are diligent in fighting against voter restriction and the desperate conservative attempt to exile/extradite millions of Latinos as a way of slowing the population shift toward a nonwhite American majority, we could have non-white majorities in Congress and the judiciary, and a country where the votes of poor whites count as much as those of wealthy whites.

Meaningful change requires leadership from those of us who are capable. Many people would like the perks and recognition that come with leadership without having to bear the burden and make the sacrifices that it requires. We have to be the change that we want to see. We can’t wait for others to solve our problems for us. 

Some prisoners will not want to jeopardize their visiting, honor dorm, or working privileges to bring about change. But you cannot tiptoe through the struggle. You can either be satisfied with small tokens, or you can dig in and push for real change. As responsible adults, our only refrain should be that what we do is lawful. As long as we are operating within the law, we must not be intimidated.

Also, we must no look back at past failures as our reason for not participating in this movement. The secret to success is to be able to fail time and time again without losing enthusiasm or the drive to succeed. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is 2 Timothy 1:7:  “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and self-control.” That is what we must exercise if we are going to take back the right to vote. 

For more information about Take Back the Vote, email takebackthevote2016@gmail.com.

John J. Knowledge is a pseudonym for an inmate at a Missouri correctional facility who fears retaliation should he publish under his own name.