Added by Staff on February 12, 2014.
Saved under News, Politics, Society
Tags: , , ,

By Dr. Sinclair Grey III

On Tuesday, Attorney General Eric Holder spoke out on the need to restore voting rights to ex-inmates. Those who suffer the most from having their voting rights stripped are African-Americas who make up the majority of prisoners. With an estimated 5.8 million Americans who are convicted or have been convicted of felony crimes, it’s time to rethink the laws and have their voting privileges reinstated.

Attorney-General-Eric-Holder

According to reports, eleven states restrict a person’s voting      rights after they’ve been released from prison and are no longer on probation or parole. These eleven states are Arizona, Florida, Alabama, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, Wyoming, Tennessee, and Virginia. Speaking at a criminal justice symposium. Holder stated, “23 states including Nebraska, Nevada, Texas, and Washington state have enacted recent improvements and Virginia has adopted a policy that automatically restores the voting rights of former prisoners with nonviolent convictions.”

As mentioned earlier, African-Americans are hit the hardest. Nearly one in 13 African-American adults are banned from voting because they have a criminal record. Because crime is so prevalent within the African-American community, laws must be changed so that ex-inmates are able to be restored into the community and more importantly, have their right to vote restored.

Holder went on to add in his speech, “these laws, with their disparate impact on minority communities, echo policies enacted during a deeply troubled period in America’s past – a time of post-Civil War discrimination. The impact of felony disenfranchisement on modern communities of color remains both disproportionate and unacceptable.”

Reinstating the voting rights of ex-inmates will sure be the talk around the water cooler by conservatives. It will be very interesting to hear their remarks.

Each state has a choice to make and pressure from the attorney general will continue to be paramount.

Source: theGrio

Dr. Sinclair Grey III is an inspirational speaker, motivator, author, organizer and liberator of persons from all intellectual, social and cultural walks of life. He is a committed advocate for change. Email: drgrey@sinclairgrey.org. Follow on Twitter @drsinclairgrey

By CCNM

I have functioned as a Business and Media Consultant over the past sixteen years and spent many years developing my capacity to function in our ever evolving use of technology, communication, education and training.