This June, Squarespace pledged to donate $500,000 over the next three years to organizations working towards social justice reform and alleviating racial inequality in the US. As part of that commitment, our first donation of $100,000 was made to The Sentencing Project, an organization whose mission is to advocate for policies that uphold a fair and effective criminal justice system for all Americans, illuminating and challenging systematic racial disparities.
With this donation, The Sentencing Project will further invest in their campaign to end voting exclusions for millions of people with felony convictions, which disproportionately affects communities of color. Regardless of a person’s political affiliation, the ability to participate in civic discourse and impact government policy and practice through voting is a fundamental right that can have a significant impact on the arc towards racial justice.
We spoke with Executive Director Amy Fettig about The Sentencing Project’s work to end felony disenfranchisement.
SQUARESPACE: You became the Executive Director of The Sentencing Project in July of this year, in a moment when more attention than ever before is focused on racial justice, criminal justice reform, and voting rights. As a leader, how do you keep your organization and community engaged with the unique challenges and opportunities 2020 has presented?
Amy Fettig: There’s no question that 2020 is one of the most challenging years the United States has seen in generations, but at the same time the events of this year continue to raise public awareness of the deep-seated racial injustice in our society and the criminal justice system in particular. The Sentencing Project staff and I are inspired by the work and message of folks around the country, especially directly impacted people and communities who are calling for more humane and effective responses to public safety. These calls to action focus on investing in communities rather than tearing them down or hollowing them out by imprisoning more and more people for longer and longer periods of time.
One of the key strategies The Sentencing Project uses to support racial justice is by exposing the way the criminal justice system undermines both voting rights and democracy in this country. We just released, Locked Out 2020: Estimates of People Denied Voting Rights Due to a Felony Conviction, the only nationwide report that tracks how many people can’t vote in the 2020 election because of a felony conviction. There are over 5 million Americans who are shut out of our democracy right now! And in many states people are denied the right to vote both while in prison and once they return to the community because they’re on probation and parole. This translates into years and even decades where people are denied voting rights so they can’t participate fully in our society.
We’ve spoken to people across the country who’ve been denied the right to vote due to involvement in the criminal justice system and some folks who are voting for the first time after having their rights restored. Their message about the importance of voting is one that we all should hear and remember when we cast our ballots and exercise our rights.
This year’s report found that a stunning 1 in every 16 Black Americans is being denied the right to vote because of state felony disenfranchisement laws. This year’s report also includes data for the first time on the impact of felony disenfranchisement on the Latinx community. More than 560,000 Latinx Americans are being denied the right to vote across the United States due to these laws. And approximately 1.2 million women are disenfranchised due to a criminal conviction.
It’s also true that although people in jail have the right to vote—but in most jurisdictions no provision is made for them to vote. This means that nearly 700,000 people are routinely denied their rights in any election. This year we’ve been working with community advocates around the country who are trying to ensure that their local jails allow people to vote either by establishing a polling place in the jail or by ensuring that voters in jails can both register to vote and get mail-in ballots just like other eligible voters. In Washington, DC, we’ve worked with local organizations to let voters in prison know how to register and vote, after the City Council passed a new law this year that restored the voting rights of all people in prison. Washington, DC, has now joined Maine, Vermont, and Puerto Rico in fully restoring the franchise to all people regardless of criminal justice status.
SQSP: Why do laws governing voting rights for citizens convicted of crimes disproportionately affect communities of color?
AF: During the Jim Crow era, disenfranchisement laws systematically targeted Black men and undermined their political voice, effectively guaranteeing the economic and political marginalization of the Black community. While many Jim Crow laws were repealed in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement, felony disenfranchisement remained on the books and its impact grew exponentially as mass incarceration increased at the federal, state and local level.
When I say “mass incarceration,” I’m referring to the explosion in the prison population in the United States over the past 40 years—an astonishing 500% increase that is unprecedented in our history. Black Americans have been deeply harmed by these developments, with the lifetime likelihood of imprisonment for Black men born in 2001 an alarming 1 in 3. For white men the same ratio is 1 in 17. Because people of color are disproportionately targeted by the police, prosecution, the courts, corrections, and community supervision, mass incarceration impacts them disproportionately. As a result, the fact that voting rights are denied to people with felony convictions also disproportionately impacts the voting rights of Black people and communities of color.
SQSP: What are the key objectives in The Sentencing Project’s mission to address felony disenfranchisement?
AF: In 2020 we’ve recommitted to the basic principles that founded this country – one person, one vote. We also know that the overwhelming majority of Americans favor restoring voting rights to people who have either completed their sentences, or are living in the community while on probation or parole. Those voices and that commitment to democracy should be heard and reflected in our laws and policies at the local and national level. For TSP that means we are inspired to work even harder to secure the voting rights of all our citizens in order to support a strong and thriving democracy in this nation.
We believe that the bedrock of any democracy is the right to vote. Laws that exclude people from voting have destabilized communities and families in America for decades by denying them a voice in determining their futures. At TSP we work with people at the local and state level to roll back barriers to voting in our laws and policies. We also help organize community activists who are working with their local jails to ensure that people detained in these institutions aren’t denied their basic rights to vote or prevented from registering to vote. One activist we work with in South Dakota was inspired to reach out to her local jail this year to ensure that almost 600 people were informed about their right to vote and how to register while they were detained. It’s inspiring to see individual citizens take action to build our democracy in their communities—vote by vote and voice by voice.
SQSP: How can individuals get involved with The Sentencing Project’s work?
AF: We encourage all Americans to get informed about voting rights. Our website www.sentencingproject.org has lots of information about how the criminal justice system is used to undermine voting rights and how people in states across the country are pushing back on those barriers to our democracy. We also publish regular updates on voting rights that you can sign up to receive.
You can also take action by signing our Free the Vote petition. And if you’re interested in learning more about what’s happening in your community, contact us at staff@sentencingproject.org.