By Anthony Papa, Drug Policy Alliance
The right to vote is an important part of being an American citizen. Despite this fact, there are about five million Americans that are barred by law from casting a vote because of a felony conviction.
These are individuals that have experienced contact with the criminal justice system. Almost 500,000 of these Americans have been harshly sentenced because of the war on drugs.
Many of these people are nonviolent prisoners that have been punished through mandatory minimum sentencing laws. These are laws that take away the ability of judges to look at the totality of the facts in a case. I describe this particular class of laws as a poison that has slowly but surely destroyed our criminal justice system.
Recently in a speech President Barack Obama said that there had been a lot of unintended consequences in the war on drugs which have included the decimation of communities of color. What caught my attention most was his call for major federal sentencing changes, including dropping the use of mandatory minimum sentencing in certain drug cases.
I've always had an interest in the subject of mandatory minimum sentencing laws because of the 15-to-Life sentence I had served under the Rockefeller Drug Laws of New York State. Even though I was a first time non-violent offender who delivered four ounces of cocaine for the sum of five hundred dollars, the judge in my case was forced to impose a life sentence because of mandatory minimums.
These laws had the distinction of being the precursor to the current federal mandatory minimums that Attorney General Holder held responsible for breaking our criminal justice system.
When I was released from prison after serving 12 years,I had no clue about my eligibility to cast a vote. When I went to register to vote I was in for a rude awakening when I was informed that in order to legally cast my vote I had to wait until I was released from parole.
At that moment of realization, I felt the pain of felony disenfranchisement. It was so surreal that I was being further punished for the crime I committed so long ago. In the meantime while on parole I saw my Bronx neighborhood deteriorating around me. But I was powerless to do anything about it by casting my vote to try and improve the situation.
After five long years I was elated when I got off parole, and was able to cast my first vote, since being released from prison. I felt then like a great burden was lifted and I was fully welcomed back by society as a citizen.
Exercising the right to vote should be an important part of a prisoner's rehabilitation. It's an act that makes one feel whole again following years of losing those rights.
If, through voting, individuals can become involved in the political process, they have a much better chance of fully integrating back into society.
Anthony Papa is the manager of media relations for the Drug Policy Alliance.