This letter is for those concerned enough to entertain
thoughts and logic that extend beyond the time and effort needed to consume a
headline, and immediately rush to an instant conclusion.
Opposition to allowing prisoners to vote stems from the
desire to punish the guilty. Support stems from the greater need to defend the
innocent from unjust prosecution.
When the United States made slavery illegal, via the 13th
Amendment, a caveat was included that allowed states to deny the tight to vote
to those convicted of committing crimes. For over a century, former slaves and
their descendants have been marginalized by the millions, arrested by laws
written by politicians who avoided responsibility to those citizens who lost
their vote along with their liberty, and with it any prayer for justice.
Ehrlichman, an advisor to President Nixon, admitted that the
motivation for the “War on Drugs” was to politically suppress “blacks and
hippies.” There is a broad consensus today that our nation has sent too many to
jail. Our “War on Drugs,” while never successful at reducing the flow and
consumption of drugs, was quite effective as a means to incarcerate millions,
and stripping them of their right to vote in the process.
Had they not been deprived of their vote, the politicians
authoring the devices of their destruction would have had to answer to them for
the laws they created at election time. The ability to remove political
opposition through incarceration is a moral crime, and, like all crimes, a
crime that is spawned by opportunity. Guaranteeing citizens the right to vote,
no matter what crimes they commit, would deny the motivation to arrest people
in order to strip them of their vote.
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