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Lawmakers may consider restoring the right to vote for convicted felons

Flickr/Katerha /

Those convicted of a felony serving time in an Illinois prison may be allowed to cast a ballot.

Senate Bill 3482, sponsored by State Sen. Lakesia Collins, D-Chicago, would grant incarcerated individuals the right to vote from prison within 14 days of their conviction. Collins said this bill would fulfill the true purpose of the Voting Rights Act and restore equal opportunity to incarcerated individuals in choosing who represents them in the state legislature.

“I felt the need to do it for any and every one because the whole purpose of electing someone to, you know, speak to your needs, a public servant, is to have that opportunity to be a part of that voting process,” Collins said.

According to the Prison Policy Initiative, Illinois has an incarceration rate of 433 per 100,000 people. This includes prisons, jails, immigration detention and juvenile justice facilities, meaning that Illinois locks up a higher percentage of its population than almost any other democratic country.

Collins also said those serving time in Illinois prisons face challenges in the correctional system like denied medical care, poor living conditions and mistreatment from other inmates or staff.

“They are lacking a lot of access to the things that are promised to rehabilitate them and to make sure that when they're done serving their time, they can transfer seamlessly back into society and be productive,” she said. “But oftentimes, because they don't have the right to vote currently, a lot of their issues are being ignored.”

Collins said she worked with prison reform advocates in crafting the legislation that would restore voting rights to incarcerated individuals in prisons. She said the advocates that contributed to the bill include students, graduates, community activists, and professors.

Those are the advocates that I'm talking about, you know, people who are invested in this work, who see this as an issue, who want to liberate people to have the opportunity to vote no matter their circumstances,” Collins said.

Marshan Allen is the director of policy and communication at the Illinois Prison Project. Allen said allowing those incarcerated in prisons to vote aids in a successful return to their communities.

“This bill particularly is especially crucial for communities of color, which are disproportionately affected by incarceration…and voter disenfranchisement. So, it's a step towards rectifying historical injustices that are happening in Black and brown communities,” he said.

Nearly 30,000 people are incarcerated in Illinois prisons.

Allen said allowing incarcerated individuals to vote would have a huge impact on electoral participation and would lead to more representative policies.

“When you're incarcerated, they don't look at you as a person, let alone like a citizen or anything like that,” he said. “So I think it would have a positive effect on our criminal justice system because I think that legislators will pay more attention to people who are incarcerated and listen to them.”

According to the Marshall Project, there are only two states in the U.S. that allow their incarcerated population to vote in state elections. Maine and Vermont share several characteristics that make voting by prisoners less controversial.

In these states, incarcerated individuals can only vote by absentee ballot in the place where they last lived. Unlike many other states, the majority of prisoners in Maine and Vermont are White. This means the racial implications of felony disenfranchisement laws are diffused.

Allen said the difference in the racial makeup of Illinois prisons versus Maine or Vermont prisons could play a significant part in restricting voting access to incarcerated individuals serving time in Illinois prisons.

“I think that may be part of the problem or part of the reason why they don't allow it here, or at least allow it there, because the people who are voting look like the people who are making the laws and who are being voted for, for the most part,” he said.

Director of Criminal Justice Policy at the ACLU of Illinois Benjamin Ruddell said disenfranchisement laws date back to the Jim Crow era. He said educating Illinois communities about who has the right to vote plays a key role in reducing the impact of these laws.

“One thing that we have learned is that people who are formerly incarcerated often mistakenly believe that they don't have the right to vote, even though in Illinois they do,” he said. “And I think we owe it to people to give them the correct information about the fact that they are able to vote and…the things that they need to do in order to access that right.”

Ruddell said educating those serving time in Illinois prisons on the importance of civic engagement is also important for those returning to their communities after being released from the correctional system.

“If somebody, while they are incarcerated, is able to develop an understanding of how being engaged in civic life is an important thing and something that can have a positive impact...then they can build and they can vote while they're incarcerated and actually use their voice and exercise that right,” he said.

Ruddell said granting the right to vote to those serving time in prison could help incarcerated individuals feel more connected to their communities, which Ruddell said could help reduce the return rate of those released from incarceration to the corrections system.

According to the Illinois Department of Corrections, the rate of individuals who return to correctional facilities is around 40%.

Ruddell said when people feel marginalized and excluded and are not able to participate in their communities, they find ways outside the law to survive.

“If we bring people in and include them and make them feel included, that can actually have a ripple effect and a positive impact in what happens while they're incarcerated and after they leave,” he said.


CORRECTION:
A graph initially included in this report was inaccurate and removed. The Illinois Black population is 14% of all residents. The Illinois Black prison population is 53% of all incarcerated people. (source: Bureau of Justice Statistics and U.S. Census Bureau data).

Isabela is a student reporter at NPR Illinois who is part of the Public Affairs Reporting program at UIS.
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