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Mar 11, 2009 4:15 pm US/Eastern
DeFede: Governor's Words Fall Short For Felons
Click Here For ACLU Info On Voting Rights
TALLAHASSEE (CBS4) ―
In April 2007, amid much fanfare and national attention, Governor Charlie Crist pushed forward a plan to restore the voting rights of convicted felons who have completed their sentences.
"I believe in simple human justice," Crist said at the time. "When someone pays their debt to society, it is paid in full. There is a time to move on."
The governor's handwritten notes from the clemency board meeting where the changes were put into effect, state it even more clearly: "Dignity, justice honor; at what point do the punished have the right to a simple chance to come back to society?"
The governor also scrawled out: "Justice crys out for us to do what's right."
Setting aside the error of spelling cries as "crys," the governor's thoughts were powerful and on target. But now, almost two years later, the governor's words have not lived up to their promise.
On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union released a report entitled, "Still Voteless and Voiceless in Florida." The report details how bureaucratic rules are blocking the overwhelming majority of felons who should be able to get their rights restored from doing so.
"There is still a wide divide between the sentiments expressed by Governor Crist on April 5, 2007 and the reality that we are living with now under the rules that were adopted," said the ACLU's Muslima Lewis.
Unlike other states that restore a person's civil rights – including the right to vote – automatically after they finish serving their sentence, Florida requires former felons to apply for reinstatement. The application process can be daunting as understaffed election officials in each county are unable to keep up with the requests. Even more troubling, the rules are not being uniformly applied across the state.
"The amount of misinformation and confusion that exists among the employees in the different supervisor of election offices creates an even further problem," said Brandon Hensler, the ACLU of Florida's communications director.
"The front line employees are not getting the necessary information that they need and this is across the board," added Lewis, who heads the Racial Justice and Voting Rights Project for the Florida ACLU. "The information has to come down from the state level to the supervisor offices and get transmitted to the front line employees who are going to be answering questions. So one of our recommendations is that employees in the supervisor's office get training and get regular training about the civil rights restoration process."
Since April 2007, approximately 135,000 felons have had their rights restored.
"That's a drop in the bucket," Lewis said when compared to the 950,000 who are eligible and should have been restored.
The ACLU is calling on the governor to create a system in which felons would automatically have their rights restored rather than having to apply to have them restored. In the interim, the ACLU wants the governor to make sure local officials receive the information and training necessary to help felons gain back their rights.
The ACLU is also calling on the governor to allow felons to have their rights restored even if they haven't completed paying court ordered restitution. The ACLU argues that if felons can qualify for certain occupational licenses and professions, they will have an easier time making restitution.
"While payments of restitution should not be waived," the report states, "it also should not be tied to voting rights."
During the press conference, Taiwan Daniels explained just how difficult the current system is to navigate. Arrested on drug charges in Broward when he was 16, Daniels is now 28-years-old and only recently had his rights restored.
"The process has been more discouraging than encouraging," he said. "It's almost like you are in a maze. If you are not knowledgeable and if you don't ask the right questions you will not get the right answers and you will not be led in the right direction."
He said there were points in the process where he had to call his local elections office every day, several times a day, just to get answers.
"If it had not been for my resilience and my determination and persistence I probably would not have had my rights restored," he said. The process, he added, shouldn't't be that difficult.
In the end, he finally did regain his civil rights, but he missed by "several days" the cutoff to be able to register in time to vote in the November election.
He said he was disappointed he didn't have a chance to vote this year.
"People came away with the misinformation that civil rights restoration in Florida was automatic," Lewis said. "They were described by Governor Crist and others as automatic approval. But that begs the question because the approval process itself is far short of automatic. I think there was a lot of fanfare, I think there were a lot of high expectations in the minds of Floridians and frankly some folks outside of the state of Florida that there would be some sort of automatic process and that's not the case."
So did the governor mislead people?
"What we do know is the agency that has to implement the process is underfunded, understaffed and under resourced," she said. "So there is no way the parole commission can engage in a process that would closely approximate automatic review. They have to do a case by case analysis."
Are they underfunding the agencies as a way of keeping felons off the voting roles?
"I can't get into the minds of folks who set budgets and set priorities," Lewis said.
Lewis admitted the rule changes pushed by the governor and supported by a majority of the state's clemency board, including Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, were a political compromise.
"There are political realities that we know he faces," Lewis said. But she is still hopeful he can push for more.
I asked Daniels if he believed the governor was sincere in his belief that felons should have their rights restored.
"Yes I do think the governor is sincere," he said. "However, I think there will be an uphill battle to get other individuals on board to give those individuals a second chance who truly and genuinely deserve a second chance."
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