Felony Disenfranchisement

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Felony Disenfranchisement

Felony Disenfranchisement is the barring of people from voting, otherwise eligible to vote due to

the conviction of a criminal offense. Usually restricted to a more serious class of crimes which are

punishable by death or imprisonment for a time exceeding one year. The United States has the

most and highest cases of incarceration and is also the only democracy which permanently strips

felons of their right to vote. This problem of Felony Disenfranchisement has existed in the United

States of America for more than the last seventy years, but the issue came to head in the year 2000

during the time of United States of America Presidential election, where the few people who were

not in incarceration voted excluding those caught with felony and therefore, their outcome of the

election considered. This problem of disenfranchisement has become a major concern in the

United States since many felonies have been deprived of the right and privileges to be free to vote

the leaders of their own choice. But this disenfranchisement problem in The United States of

America came into existence due to various reasons as discussed below according to various

scholars and researchers who studied its history.

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History of the Felony Disenfranchisement Problem

Felony disenfranchisement has a long living history which is closely interrelated with old English

practice of taking possession of a disapproved felon's state before he was put to death. In the United

State, debridement of voting rights to felons was practiced by the southern states in the era of Jim

Crew and that is the period when the felony disenfranchisement began. According to (Harvey) he

states that felon disapproval among minorities increased in the 1970s when political leaders

concentrated on "law and order" and started dealing with crimes or started war on stopping crimes

since crimes had become a story of the day by then. People consumed drugs just to get courage

and bravery to commit crimes which in return made them to get arrested and sentenced, and after

they were out, they were denied by the society and even denied various rights.

According to (Kelley) History on felony disenfranchisement in western countries can be traced

back in ancient Roman and Greek traditions. Disenfranchisement was commonly applied to those

people who committed "infamous crimes" such as committing murder or even drug smuggling

which by then was an imaginable crime when found. The subject faced "civil death" in that they

lose all their rights and claim to property in the society. During the medieval period, many

countries copied the punishment and came up with a common law of excluding anyone convicted

of a felony in the society and even the whole nation. Felony disenfranchisement can also be traced

back in the early colonial period in North America and back in Greece where the punishment of

disenfranchisement was imposed on individuals convicted of personal and serious crimes of

murder and also to individuals proved guilty of elections-related crimes. Felony

disenfranchisement became a significant barrier in the United States of America after the end of

civil war and the extension of suffrage to black men. This punishment was established in 1997,

majorly for black voters. There are trends that made the perfections and the implementations of

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the law. That is the lawmakers who came up with criminal laws to slew black citizens convicted

of the offense of felony. When the United States of America installed this punishment, many states

enacted the disenfranchisement laws that deprived voting rights of all victims found guilty of the

crime. Those two trends are the one that laid the foundation of felony disenfranchisement that is

currently going on in the United States of America.

The United States of America being the most punitive nation in the world when it comes to felony

matters, it has strictly ensured that the sentence of this crime is implemented that is

disenfranchisement, probation and the debridement of other rights. According to (Demleitner)most

states do not return a felon's right to vote even after their sentence, but also in other states, for

example, Florida, the felonies restore their voting rights but the fact is that they spend a lengthy

waiting period, after which they must appear before the board to go through re-registration. This

is to say according to (Demleitner)when one becomes a felony then, he or she is no longer a citizen

of that country until he or she goes through all the legal processes to get re-registered. Besides that,

it means in those countries that do not return the felonies rights, the felonies no longer become

their citizens even after their sentence is over. According to NAACP in 201, more than five million

(5M) felonies had no right to vote in their various countries whether in prison or free and righted

citizens. (Karlan)which out the idea that disenfranchisement in most countries is not fair to any

felony, but to the minority populations, the poor and the racial minorities. (Karlan)notes that

disenfranchisement in historically and marginalized communities diminished their potential to

effect change electorally.

According to (Uggen) disenfranchisement does not only affect election results, but also keeps the

ex-felon feeling alienated from the society since, during probation, every right is deprived or taken

away and hence they do feel unwanted to the society at this very moment when they are denied to

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take their responsibilities in electing their leaders of choice. Out of the five million felonies who

did vote in the year 1997 in the United States, three-quarter of the population was not in

incarceration, but they were denied their citizenship and rights after the end of their sentence.

Quantitative analysis done by (Sanchez)showed that enfranchised felons had fewer chances to vote

than their non-convicted peers, meaning that felony disenfranchisement had played a less role in

election results. (Preuhs)disenfranchisement arouses the perceptions of the illegitimacy of our

federal or legal among minority citizens since it had a long history in the United States of the

minority voters' suppressions. Taking away from minority voting rights that have affected many

in the United States and within. Felonies go through a lot of suffering in the United States apart

from them being denied voting rights. Many researchers such as (Sanchez)and (Karlan)have

referred this to be a result of racism. Together with disenfranchisement being a denial of citizens

to express their interests in the election, the United States complements that, felonies' interests are

of no longer substantial to them. Lastly, (Marshall)said that the denial of felonies to voting rights

is hindrances of society's efforts to rehabilitate the former and change them become law-binding

ad also to become productive citizens to the society and nation as a whole.

Finally, disenfranchisement has been chased on to identify the state interests accumulated by

denying voting to ex-felonies. This was according to (Marshall)He also states that the frequently

cited interests were; protection against election offenses or voters' fraud, prevention of harmful

changes of law and maintain the "purity" of the ballot boxes. These interests seemed to be

unreliable since each had severe problems or challenges of their own.

Finally, (Jonakoren) reviews that disenfranchisement law was adopted in the United States of

America, upon gaining its statehood. This felony was to reduce the African American citizens in

their states, who were rapidly increasing in number in the USA. Since then the punishment of

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incarceration continued to increase rapidly until to date where states have the highest rate of the

correctional control system in the scope. It is also clearly seen that the initiating of this

incarceration or disenfranchisement was not to get the public benefit but to fight the African

American men.

In conclusion, from the long living history of felony disenfranchisement, it is clearly depicted that

the punishment of disenfranchisement started earlier before even the establishment of states in

America. And it was even practiced by the ancestors. So what we are seeing today on

disenfranchisement is not "cooked" in the recent past, but it has deep roots that make it firm and

old. We are also made to be aware that, by coming up with disenfranchisement, no benefit that

needed to be accumulated but the aim was to fight the African American citizens who were

dominating in the United States of America. even to date, it is clearly seen that incarceration is

done mostly to African American men that the Whites, something that brings out a general

meaning that Felony Disenfranchisement is all about the war on the African American Citizens.

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Works Cited

Demleitner, Nora. Sentencing Law and Policy: Cases, Statutes and Guidelines. 2004.

Harvey. The History of Disenfranchisement. 1994.

Jonakoren. The History and Impact Of Felony Disenfranchisement. Oxford University Press, 2015.

Karlan, Dean. The Goldilock Challenge. 1997.

Kelley, Eric. Intertwined History of Racism and Felony Disenfrachisement. Stanford Press, 2017.

Marshall, Thurgood. Devil in the Grove. Penguin, 1950.

Preuhs, Robert. Black Latino Relations in United States Politics. Penguine Publishers, 2001.

Sanchez, Thomas. Mile Zero. Penguine Publishers, 1993.

Uggen, Jeff Manza and Christopher. Locked Out: Disenfranchisement and American Democracy. Oxford

University Press, 2006.

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