Attorney General Eric Holder is
calling for an end to state laws that bar felons from voting, even after
they have served their sentences.
"By
perpetuating the stigma and isolation imposed on formerly incarcerated
individuals, these laws increase the likelihood they will commit future
crimes," Holder said Tuesday at a Washington, D.C., symposium on
sentencing laws.
Holder said the restrictions bar 5.8 million Americans from casting a ballot, including 2.2 million African-Americans.
"Nearly
one in 13 African-American adults are banned from voting because of
these laws. In three states -- Florida, Kentucky, and Virginia -- that
ratio climbs to one in five," he said.
Holder
called the laws a vestige of post-Civil War racial discrimination, with
a disproportionately high impact on minority communities.
The
laws were not intended to improve public safety but rather "to
stigmatize, shame, and shut out a person who had been found guilty of a
crime."
Justice
Department
figures say Florida's law has disenfranchised roughly 10 percent of the
population. Similar laws in Mississippi bar 8 percent of the population
from voting, the figures say.
Three
states -- Florida, Iowa, and Kentucky -- permanently disenfranchise
convicted felons, unless the government approves an individual request
to have rights restored. Eight others -- Alabama, Arizona, Delaware,
Mississippi, Nevada, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wyoming -- bar at least
some, though not all, convicted felons from voting.
In
most states, voting rights are restored after a sentence is served,
though some also require completing terms of probation or parole. Nearly
all states bar felons from voting while they remain in prison.
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