Election Day, Part 1

In July, 1776, delegates from the thirteen break away colonies gathered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to sign their names to a declaration.  From that moment forward the uprising that had begun a year earlier could lead to only one conclusion:  it would be independence or death.

The author of the Manifesto, Thomas Jefferson, borrowed heavily from Scottish political philosopher John Locke when he penned that people “are endowed with certain unalienable rights…”  Jefferson listed three:  life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  The men gathered in Philadelphia, this nation’s founding fathers, understood the importance of the words they were placing their signatures to.  God, not government, gives human beings certain rights.  Freedom, liberty, are God’s dictate, not some privilege that can be handed down by a ruler.

It was a daring statement of faith in the absolute rights of humankind derived from the sovereign Lord.  And, it formed the basis of the most successful experiment in republican democracy the world has ever known.  “We the people…in order to form a more perfect union…”

I write this fifteen days from the presidential election.  Supporters of both candidates will tell you this is the most important election in the nation’s history.  I’m not so sure.   Somehow the crises affecting this country in 1860 when Lincoln was elected, and again in 1864 at his re-election, make this era pale by comparison.

This piece isn’t about Romney or Obama.  This is about voting.  Virginia is one of only four states that do not automatically reinstate voting rights to felons upon their release from prison.  This election day some 350,000 Virginians will be unable to vote solely because they carry a scarlet “F” on their record.  Voting is not a privilege.  It is an unalienable right of a people to have a say in their governance. 

The current Governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, has touted his administration’s efforts to restore voting rights to felons.  He should be applauded.  In less than three years in office, McDonnell has streamlined the process (it is now just filing a simple downloadable form with his office versus the former cumbersome process of petitioning), and restored voting rights to nearly 2,000.  That’s more than any previous modern age Virginia Governor.

The problem is McDonnell, like his predecessors and for too many politicians, believes voting is a privilege and that government can decide the terms and conditions of exercising that privilege.  Disenfranchisement, even after over 225 years, still shows itself each election cycle.

It is an irony not lost on me that this nation, “the shining city on the hill” as former President Ronald Reagan described her, is the only western nation that restricts felons from voting.  Even in this country, all but seventeen states automatically restore voting rights to felons as they exit prison.

Ohio State University law professor Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, a critical assessment of the nation’s mass incarceration push, argues that voting is a fundamental right of citizenship which cannot be usurped by a felony conviction.

And the arguments used to deny felons the right to vote are the same arguments used earlier in this nation’s history to deny women, the poor, and ethnic and racial minorities a say in the future direction of this land.

A few years ago, during George W. Bush’s presidency, this nation became transfixed as we watched millions of Iraqis brave bombings and threats of murder to cast ballots in their first democratic election after the overthrow of the dictator Saddam Hussein.

And we watched as these citizens dipped their fingers in purple ink and displayed them to the world saying “our vote matters”.  I remember one man in particular, carried his child in his arms.  He’d been imprisoned during the Hussein years.  And he proudly walked forward and voted.  “I want my child to know it’s not your past that matters.  It’s your future.”

“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights…”

Amazing words.  It’s a shame this nation, this state doesn’t believe them at election time.

 

The Re-entry Con Game

Prior to his inauguration, amidst much fanfare, then Governor-Elect Bob McDonnell visited the Henrico County Jail to announce that under his administration a partnership would be formed with the private sector and faith based organizations for the re-entry of inmates back to their community.

The hearts and minds of thousands of inmates languishing in Virginia’s prisons were suddenly buoyed that finally a politician had been elected who gave a damn.  It was surprising, no astounding, that the politician was a “tough on crime” conservative, born-again Christian, Republican.  Within weeks of his inauguration, a huge “Re-entry Initiative” was printed at a cost of thousands of dollars and who knows how many trees.

But, it appears that after months of talk about re-entry, Governor McDonnell’s plan is nothing but a sophisticated snake oil sale.  Nothing about McDonnell’s plan is different from the past.  Bob McDonnell is long on words and short on action.

As I sit here at Lunenburg, a facility specifically designated as a “re-entry center”, I can assure you the exact same “transition out program” used for years before McDonnell’s election is still the same program used today.  Nothing different.  Nothing new.

The old “Breaking Barriers” program, a touchy feely group exploration of why “we” break the law has been replaced with “thinking for a change”.  Same poor program taught by prison “counselors” (who are a joke).  The name changed but the content remained the same. 

Even worse, Lunenburg is now being managed by a warden who plays no role in the day to day operation of the facility and by an assistant warden who actually scoffs at the notion of inmate programs.  In other words, DOC has placed management of one of its re-entry facilities in the hands of people who are opposed to re-entry.  Is it any wonder approximately one third of Virginia’s inmates re-offend within three years of release?

My friend in “Alaska” has been taking me to task for the great waste of resources used on prisoners who never even admit their culpability for their crimes and see themselves as the victims.  I couldn’t agree with you more “Alaska”.  Almost every day I have some guy come up to me and say “I didn’t do it” or “the Commonwealth attorney paid off the judge”.  Most inmates won’t accept responsibility for their behavior, won’t seek forgiveness for their wrongs, and won’t apologize to their victims.  And the reason, quite simply, is because people that do that suffer worse at the hands of the system.

What “Alaska” wants I think, is what I have called for almost from the inception of this blog, implementation of restorative justice principles, not retribution.  Founded on Biblical tenets, it was what Bishop Tutu used in South Africa and what is leading to societal reconciliation in Burundi and Rwanda.  And, it is the exact opposite of what we do in our prisons.

Over and over I am told by well meaning people inside and outside of these walls that for “a smart man” I was “foolish” for (1) admitting my wrongdoing the day I was questioned without even asking for counsel; (2) pleading guilty to all charges brought without requiring proof of the “loss” or any sentencing deal.  I’m looked at as a fool because I apologized to the court, my employer, my wife, children, parents and friends and told the judge I deserved prison time.

“What were you thinking?  “Why would you give everything to your wife knowing she would divorce you?  Why would you apologize to an employer who was calling the prosecution demanding you get one hundred years?”  When I tell them I did what the Lord requires us to do when we fail, I’m met with “the Lord sure didn’t tell the judge to be just did he?”

Inmates and accuseds will never accept the idea of remorse, of just punishment, and of rehabilitation, as long as the system is so blatantly unfair.  Sentences bear no relationship to the crime committed and in many instances are products of an accused’s race and class.

A book that draws widespread attention in prisons is Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow”.  In it, Ms. Alexander argues quite persuasively that prisons in modern America have replaced the plantation model of pre-civil war America for black men.  I’ve read the book.  It is disturbing and insightful and correct.  White, middle class teens committing the same crime as impoverished black teens receive substantially shorter sentences.  And once in prison, inmates (a majority of which are African American) are put to work doing dangerous, harmful work for slave wages.  During the Gulf Oil spill, for example, thousands of Louisiana inmates were put to work handling carcinogenic laced oil without adequate safety measures and without pay.  Here at Lunenburg, VCE (Virginia Corrections Enterprises) operates a furniture shop in an un-air-conditioned shop.  Inmates build furniture for state universities for 55 to 85 cents an hour.  That furniture is then sold to those schools (who must buy it even though furniture from private manufacturers is less expensive).

The system should be built on the simple, yet all important premise, of restoring the lawbreaker – where possible – to the community as a whole person.  To do that requires the law breaker to admit their wrong, reflect on why they did it, apologize to the victim, where possible make restitution to the victim and be reconciled to the community.

This process isn’t accomplished by giving a man fifteen years with no hope of early release and in his fourteenth year sending him to a ten week “transition out program”.  All that time before is wasted, making the inmate more embittered, feeling more victimized himself.

Governor McDonnell needs to quit selling snake oil and really make prison matter.  Reinstate early release and tie it specifically to the principles of restorative justice outlined above.  Make prison an effective method of correction, not a dumping ground based on punitive principles.  Inmates will change when they see the sincerity, not the hypocrisy, in the system.

General Assembly Update

Once again the Virginia General Assembly is considering a number of bills that will directly affect inmates. But inmates are the one minority it’s OK to mistreat. As pointed out in the book The New Jim Crow, prison inmates today are the last discriminated class in America, akin to the black struggle against injustice in the segregated, Jim Crow era south. Michelle Alexander, the author, is a radical. She believes mass incarceration is as morally repugnant as apartheid.



This year the General Assembly will consider giving inmates additional “earned good time” days each month. The fact that we sit here and hope an additional five, seven or even ten days a month could be earned to the paltry 4.5 days currently on the books should tell you how desperate the prison population is for any relief.


I repeat something I have stated more than once in this blog: Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote 150 years ago that “a society is judged by how it treats its prisoners”.


Virginia has a moral imperative to ease the length of prison sentences and ensure prisons are humane. The Commonwealth, the country as a whole, risks moral bankruptcy unless prison reform becomes a reality.


The General Assembly has a clear choice. They can be just, be honorable, act morally or continue with business as usual.