Felon Disenfranchisement Reform of the Old Standard

The topic of felon disenfranchisement has become a highly contested topic as of late. The current Presidential Administration in what would appear to be a hollow declaration and political posturing has recently directed Attorney General Eric Holder to decree the racially motivated and archaic Jim Crow driven practice be restructured or more likely abolished. And in what would appear as the trump card in an already racially sensitive society Atty. Gen Eric Holder states in his address to the Georgetown University Law Center on criminal justice reform that “although well over a century has passed since post-Reconstruction states used these measures to strip African Americans of their most fundamental rights, the impact of felony disenfranchisement on modern communities of color remains both disproportionate and unacceptable. Throughout America, 2.2 million black citizens – or nearly one in 13 African-American adults – are banned from voting because of these laws. In three states – Florida, Kentucky, and Virginia – that ratio climbs to one in five” (Eric H. Holder, 2014)

I. History of Disenfranchisement

The practice of excluding criminals from participation in general social activities because of their criminal acts “originated in ancient Greece” as stated by George Brooks in the Fordham Urban Law Journal.” (Brooks, 2005) Originally the perpetrators of crime were punished with what was called a civil death wherein the individuals were forbidden to participate in all civil functions and excluded from owning property or even entering into contracts with other parties. The practice of civil death was designed to deter individuals from criminal acts and would remove them from society with a lifelong punishment.

Evolution of American Dis...

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Info Learning Base. (2008, July 25). Disenfranchisement of Felons. Retrieved from Info Learning Base: By the Numbers: http://www.2facts.com/icof_story.aspx?PIN=in061102

Pettus, K. I. (2005). Judicial Justifications of Felon Disenfranchisement and the Politics of Crime.

Schall, J. D. (2004). Does the "Social Contract" Theory Present a Valid Reason for Felon Disenfranchisement? Retrieved from The Sentencing Project: http://www.sentencingproject.org/template/index.cfm

Spakovsky, H. A. (2013, March 15). Ex-cons Should Prove They Deserve the Right to Vote. Retrieved April 15, 2014, from The Heritage: http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2013/3/excons-should-prove-they-deserve-the-right-to-vote

U.S. Department of Justice. (n.d.). Bureau of Justice Statistics. (U. D. Justice, Producer) Retrieved April 14, 2014, from http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=17