People in prison are completely locked out of the elections process, as a result PIP have little choice but to plead with outside citizens to consider the state of their conditions in an attempt to influence elections at the ballot box
Mailed from Pasquotank Correctional Institution
PIP are well aware that public officials, even those who look like them, fail to take a stand on the issues that impact them do to not having their interests at heart. Public officials aren’t incentivized to prioritize prison issues or failing prison policies as a result of limited or lack of voting rights altogether
Mailed from Northeast Correctional Center in MODC
Right2Vote Report Jan 2019, Issue 1, pg.2
The first issue of the Right2Vote documents the status of voting rights for impacted citizens January 2019, following the 2018 National Prison Strike that called for, “The voting rights of all confined citizens serving prison sentences, pretrial detainees, and so-called ‘ex-felons’ must be counted. Representation is demanded. All voices count” as the 10th demand. The number of states that included post release supervisions (like probation and parole) as a part of the definition of “the completion of sentence” outweighed the number of states where rights where voting rights never revoked along with those states were rights were automatically restored upon released combined! These numbers steadily shift in the coming years.
For decades PIP have pleaded with outside citizens to consider their voices as constituents who are also impacted by those policies and officials put in power at elections. As an alternative to exercising their rights themselves PIP plead with outside citizens conditions when going to the ballot box
Mailed from Menard CC
In response to the 2018 National Prison Strike the Right2Vote Campaign consolidated a cohort of organizations advocating for voter restoration policies have created coalitions in support of proposed policies across multiple states
The Right2Vote cohort established through the implementation of the Right2Vote Report prisoner newsletter embraced the application of prisoner narratives during state congressional hearings in support of legislation to reenfranchise impacted voters, including incarcerated citizens as well as those serving sentences post release from detention (probation, parole, community custody etc.)
As a result of their life experiences, people in prison have identified the link between chattel slavery and prison slavery through the consequential application of the 13th Amendment,
Mailed from Sampson Correctional Institution
Simply stated,
Bridging the Gap Between Civic Isolation and Engagement in Prison
Reasons behind restoring the vote for incarcerated citizens extend beyond the desire to influence elections or to have more adequate representation
Mailed from Airway Heights CC
This letter continues