Read Emancipate NC client Phillip Vance Smith II’s article about what it is like to experience a U.S. election from prison.
Incarcerated people care about elections because they can give us either hope or hopelessness. Criminal disenfranchisement, which traces its roots back to ancient Greece and Rome, is a sterile term for the irreconcilable truth that one of the groups most affected by elections cannot vote in them.
The decisions elected officials make shape nearly every aspect of our lives inside—from the quality of the food we eat to the length of the sentences we serve. The U.S. president and state governors can grant clemency; appoint prosecutors, law enforcement, and prison officials; and nominate judges who oversee criminal trials and appeals. Sometimes those judges, prosecutors, and sheriffs themselves show up on the ballot. Legislators, meanwhile, pass criminal codes and budgets governing prison conditions. I’ve witnessed enough elections from behind bars to understand their importance.