PUNISHED in Perpetuity

The right to vote is one of the sacred tenets of a self-governed society; it’s how the people control their government. But here in Florida, 10 percent of adults are banned from casting a ballot on Tuesday, Nov. 8 due to a felon disenfranchisement law that is one of the strictest in the nation.

Disenfranchisement has a long history in Florida, dating back to the state’s first constitution in 1838, when people convicted of “bribery, perjury, or other high crime or misdemeanor” could lose the right to vote. Since then, the state has substantially tightened these restrictions to include all felonies which, coupled with the rise of “tough on crime” policies in the 1980s, has led to Florida becoming home to more disenfranchised voters than any other state.

According to the Sentencing Project, today one-quarter of all the people in America who have lost their right to vote under such laws live in Florida; of 6 million disenfranchised Americans, 1.5 million are here in the Sunshine State.

Due to conviction rates, which skyrocketed under the purview of the Fourth Judicial Circuit’s outgoing State Attorney Angela Corey, Northeast Florida is likely home to more than its fair share of people who have no voice in government. The State Attorney’s Office website boasts that since Corey took office in 2009, “the Fourth Judicial Circuit has consistently ranked in the top five across the state for convictions.” Before she took office, the website states, the circuit ranked 20th — last —in the state for convictions.

These laws have an alarmingly disproportionate impact on African Americans. The Sentencing Project reports that because of the law, 21 percent — more than one in five — of black people in Florida cannot vote.

Not only does Florida deprive people convicted of felonies within the state from voting and enjoying other rights, the state also revokes the rights of those convicted in other states who now live here, regardless of that state’s felon disenfranchisement law, if any.

Under the current law, some of these individuals will never get their voting rights back.

Florida’s felon disenfranchisement law is far from typical. The American Civil Liberties Union reports that Florida, Kentucky and Iowa are the only states that permanently deprive all people with felony convictions of the ability to vote. According to the ACLU, only nine states ban people who have completed the terms of their sentences from voting. In two states, Vermont and Maine, no one is disenfranchised — even people in prison can vote.

Technically, it isn’t impossible to have your voting rights restored in Florida — for certain offenses, you may apply for clemency five years after completing your sentence; for others, such as violent crimes, you must wait seven years — but under Governor Rick Scott’s administration, the vast percentage of people who have applied for clemency have been denied.

One of Scott’s first acts upon taking office in 2011 was to repeal automatic restoration of rights that his predecessor, Charlie Crist, had enacted, which had resulted in 155,315 people getting their rights back while Crist was governor. Since then, the most recent data available from the Florida Commission on Offender Review shows that the Executive Clemency Board, which includes Scott and the three members of his cabinet, have restored rights to just 2,215 people.

It’s not that people aren’t applying. In FY2014-’15, 5,327 people applied for rights restoration and the board completed review of 6,121 cases; of those, a paltry 562, or nine percent, had their rights reinstated, according to the commission’s 2015 report. Tampa Bay Times reported that just 237 people had voting rights restored in the first six months of this year. Miami-Herald reports there are “10,463 men and women on a growing waiting list as of August.”

There is no process by which the board’s decisions are reviewed; the only alternative is to wait two years and apply again. Many have criticized the process by which the board restores rights as arbitrary; others simply believe it’s cruel and un-American.

Desmond Meade knows firsthand just how demoralizing this can be. Though in the years since he completed the conditions of his sentence, he’s received a law degree and has become a well-respected advocate for change, he still can’t vote. In addition to being unable to hold office and own, possess or use a firearm, under the felon disenfranchisement law, he also can’t take the bar exam.

“It can get a little frustrating because you’re living this thing every day, seeing other people be able to vote if they want to vote … in 47 other states, I’d be able to do it, but in this state I can’t,” he tells Folio Weekly in a telephone conversation.

“Everything that’s preventing me from voting is anti-democratic, it’s anti-democracy,” he later says.

In part due to his efforts as president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition and chair of the committee backing a constitutional amendment to automatically restore rights to nonviolent felons who have completed all the terms of their sentences, in 2018 voters may have a chance to change the law. In September, the ballot initiative surpassed the required 68,314 signatures to trigger a Florida Supreme Court review of the amendment. If the court approves, Floridians may vote on the Voter Restoration Amendment in 2018.

Although this law disproportionately impacts African Americans like Meade, Floridians of all races, ages and genders are deprived of their right to vote under this law. Here are just two of their stories.
____________________

DEVIN D. COLEMAN, 38, author, motivational speaker, works for the nonprofit organization New Florida Majority

Do you have any family?
I’m a single father. My daughter is 7 years old.

Where are you from?
Jacksonville born and raised.

How did you lose your voting rights?
In 1999, it was a house party, a couple of my friends went to the house party, got into a physical altercation. As a result of it, in 2001, I took a felony conviction in a plea deal.

Did you have any prior record?
A misdemeanor for resisting arrest without violence — adjudication withheld.

Why did you ultimately decide to plead guilty?
At first I told [my attorney], I’m not pleading to no prison time, here I am, I’m in college, I don’t have any, like, major offenses prior to this. Up to that point I had never been in jail. I had never did the county time. You gonna send me to prison, talk about culture shock. I fought the case, maybe like 18 months. The way he charged me, I was looking at a life sentence, so it was, like, I take the plea and have a shot at building my life versus losing everything. And I, the first time going through that process, it was very intimidating, so I took the plea.

Where did it happen?
Tallahassee.

How old were you?
I might’ve just turned 21.

They were trying to give you a life sentence — were there serious injuries in the case?
They said two guys had injuries. And I think if I recall right, it said one was serious and one was medium. But when you look at the doctor bills, one doctor bill was like $500 and some dollars and the other was $400 and some. Like a guy had a scar on his face, a scratch, he was cut, but the serious injury would be more than $500, $900 combined. I’m not taking nothing away from what happened to them or that nature, but.

What was the sentence?
I ended up taking a plea of three years DOC, department of corrections, followed by 24 months of probation. The interesting thing is, I actually went to the portion of where you pick the jury and when I saw that developing, I wanted to take the plea. So they did a PSI, pre-sentence investigation, and my pre-sentence investigation came back favorably. On one part, they were, like, seven months county jail, two years house arrest, two years probation, which wouldn’t have stopped me from finishing my degree at that time but I remember the judge was, like, he had no alternative but to sentence me to the department of corrections.

What were you studying in college?
Economics.

Did you finish your degree?
Yeah, I finished at EWC (Edward Waters College) ’cause honestly I was afraid to go back to Tallahassee.

When were you released?
I was done with it all August 16, 2006.

Have your rights to vote been restored?
My voting rights was never restored. The crazy thing is, I got a voter card.

You do?
I got one. I got that in the mail then I got a letter saying I shouldn’t go vote because if I was to vote without getting my rights restored, that would constitute another felony. I was like, man. This the thing, I’m not arguing the fact that a crime was committed, I’m not arguing the fact that I did the time but I wasn’t told I was going to lose my civil rights to citizenship as a result of it, especially after paying my debt to society. Now you’re telling me I can’t vote. That’s like a perpetual punishment.

When did you get that in the mail?
I’ve got a couple of them.

They send them to you regularly?
They haven’t in a while but I didn’t go down there to get it. [Laughs.]

What did you think when you got the voter registration card in the mail?
Insult to injury. Because I got a letter right after that sent to my granddad’s that told me not to go vote, so in my mind, I’m like, which one is it? Like baiting me in to recidivate.

If you had known the consequences, would you have chosen differently?
I’ll put it like this: Had I known the long-term effects of the system, not just on me, but on my family, I would’ve had a whole different course of action. That’s why I do things like speak to youth now, because I want to give them options that was removed for me.

Have you voted before?
Yes. I was able to vote. I voted; I was able to vote. That was 2000 Bush and Gore, that was my first and only time ever voting.

You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but who did you vote for?
I voted for Gore.

How does it feel to be going through this election season, it’s in the news all the time, people talk about it all the time, how does it feel to be someone who can’t vote?
I’ll paint a picture for you. It’s different for me because I’m exposed to it, like, I work in that field, so when I hear about Souls to the Polls and Get Out the Vote and these events where you show your ticket, you can enter and all that, I can’t do that. So I’m constantly every day reminded that not only currently I can’t vote but I’m just seeing everybody else celebrate the right to vote and I’m getting ostracized from the state level and different events because I can’t show a, even if I wanted to, I can’t show an ‘I voted’ sticker. And on the flip side, it made me think about, you know, I looked at the turnout for Jacksonville in this primary and I was, like, wow, these people don’t even understand that it’s a long line of people that wish they could do something that you have an opportunity to do and in my opinion an obligation to do and vote.

If you could vote this year, which presidential candidate would you vote for?
I’m undecided. I wish that whole process would have been different. What I’m more focused on and what affects me more is local politics. Like the governor affects my right to vote, city council affects my neighborhood, the school board affects the education my daughter receives. Presidents are important, but there are so many down ballot issues that affect my life.

Are you more engaged because of your history?
In college we had a culture of engagement. I think my life experiences tied it close to home, like, you know, immediate impacts that people are unaware of until it affects them. We talk about this voting rights issue, people don’t know that in other states, people can vote. It’s a lack of information that people think it’s the norm — it’s not, it’s actually abnormal.

Have you applied to have your voting rights restored?
Me and a friend of mine, we’re going to apply together. We’re going to do the buddy system.

Do you know the statistics?
I do. I’m actually looking for a lawyer for it. It takes a lot of emotional fortitude to go through something like that. I’m literally not the person who I was that night of the incident, not even saying that was a bad person, that was a person that made a mistake, right? But age brought wisdom and maturity and it’s rather difficult at times to look at that stuff. I’m not eager to relive it but I’m eager to close the book on that and move forward.

When do you plan to apply?
If not the end of this year, Christmastime, the beginning of next year.

How would you feel if you go through the process and get your voting rights back?
It would be like a vindication, like heavyweight champ of the world, that’s what it would feel like, like winning the Super Bowl. Because of the statistics, it’s tough, it’s definitely an uphill battle. And I think the most challenging thing about it that we wrestle with is, it’s not a standard, it’s not a standard saying if you do this, this, this, you get your rights back — it’s like a shot in the dark. Everything else has a standard, cars have standards, safety standards.

I know you can reapply after two years, but even then you got to be a strong individual because you talk about, the offense happened in ’99. I’ve been free of the system, that end of the system, the physical punishment end, since 2006. It’s 10 years later and after the application it’s no telling how many more years that I would have to wait.

In Florida, 23 percent of African-American males cannot vote due to these laws; 10 percent of all adults of voting age cannot vote due to these laws. What do you think about those statistics?
I want the leaders to actually like take a look at that stuff because it’s growing and it’s becoming more widespread. This is the Sunshine State, right, the Sunshine State and the sun’s not shining on everybody, everybody can’t participate. And we’re talking post-conviction.

If you look at people who had their rights restored, their recidivism rate is lower than the ones who haven’t. So that’s an incentive for people to do right. We give incentives for everything else, we give incentives for raises, we give incentives for projects, incentives in schools. So we know a majority of these people are coming home, if they mess up, they’re going back. We know the financial burden it is on the taxpayers having people incarcerated because you’re juggling between prison and education. Why wouldn’t you build a bridge? Because if these people fail, you already have a system for them, that you’re already sending them back to. Why not try something different and see if we could get a different result?

Governor Scott has been leading the charge against restoration of rights. Under Governor Charlie Christ, there was automatic restoration of rights and 155,000 people had their rights restored; under Governor Jeb Bush, 76,000 people had their rights restored. Under Rick Scott, it’s just 2,000 people who have had their rights restored in five years’ time. If you could say one thing to him about this, what would you say?
I would ask why. Why try to fix something that wasn’t broken?

The interesting thing about what you just said, you named three governors, you named three Republican governors. So this is not a Republican or Democrat issue. Another thing you said, 23 percent of African Americans, 10 percent across all voters, so it’s not just an African-American issue, now African Americans are affected by it at a higher rate, but this is affecting everybody. So why not fix this now before it propels into something much larger?

___________________

DAVID WEBB, 55, beekeeper, owns Webb’s Honey

Do you have any family?
Divorced, two grown daughters. One of them works for me, other one’s married to a sailor up in North Carolina.

Where are you from?
I’ve been in Florida since ’83, originally from Arkansas.

Where do you live now?
Cocoa.

How did you lose your voting rights?
I had been over in Orlando and was coming back and there was an off-duty cop that followed me back across the 528. He said I was swerving; he called the police and the state troopers picked me up. I refused to blow because I would have blown over .04, that’s all I can blow because I’ve got a commercial driver’s license. I shouldn’t have been driving.

Did you have prior convictions?
I knew they were going to lay it to me because I had one five years before, another 15 years before.

Was anyone injured in any of your DUI cases?
No, no accidents involved or anything.

Do you have any other criminal record?
No.

What was the sentence?
I have my driver’s license suspended for 10 years. They let me go to an inpatient rehab for 30 days in lieu of going to jail for 30 days. I could have gotten six months in jail. I think the fine was like $1,500, probation for five years and a bunch of court costs.

Have you voted in the past?
I’ve voted in every presidential election and most of the local elections. The first time I voted, it was the second term of Bill Clinton’s governorship in Arkansas and we voted him out of office. When I was 18.

Party affiliation?
I’m registered as a Republican but I’m a Libertarian.

Who would you vote for this year?
Gary Johnson.

How does it feel to lose your voting rights?
Well, it’s, you know, I mean I’m just getting screwed on it. I don’t understand it. If somebody in another state can vote in prison and they’re a felon and I can’t even vote now that I’ve paid my fines and am going to probation and doing everything I’m supposed to do and I still can’t vote. I didn’t even realize that in 2011 they made it more strict. I probably didn’t realize it because it didn’t affect me. I don’t think that just because somebody’s a felon, they should take away their voting rights.

It would be nice to be able to vote but I would rather be able to get my hunting rights back. It’s not just the voting.

Do you think it makes sense to take away someone’s right to vote?
Once you get in the machine, the system, you understand a lot of this stuff is done for money, for creating jobs for people and all this treatment and stuff you’re going to. When I had my first DUI, I got stuck in an HIV awareness class. It was mandatory that I go. I guess they had to get some people somewhere to fill the class, to keep the class going.

When your five years are up, are you going to petition to get your voting rights back?
Yeah, I’ll definitely do that. I’m going to try to get off probation early. I’ve completed everything I’m supposed to do but I haven’t paid for my supervision. I’ll try to get off of probation and then the next thing would be to try to get my rights restored.