FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, June 22 2021
CONTACT: Katie Talbot, Neighbor to Neighbor
katie@n2nma.org | 413-270-4694
Thirty Statewide and National Organizations Urge Joint Committee on Election Laws to Hold Public Hearing on Jail-Based Voting Reform
Coalition working to end the disenfranchisement of eligible incarcerated voters say failure to hold a summer public hearing will ensure the disenfranchisement of eligible, disproportionately Black voters and voters of color in fall municipal elections.
BOSTON – Tuesday morning, 35 advocacy and movement organizations signed onto a letter urging the Joint Committee on Election Laws to hold a public hearing on elections and incarceration legislation. The Democracy Behind Bars Coalition — a statewide group of organizations working to end the disenfranchisement of justice-involved people in Massachusetts — says that the Committee’s failure to hold a hearing risks sidelining racial equity in Massachusetts democracy.
In Massachusetts, those incarcerated pre-trial and on misdemeanor convictions who typically make up half of the Commonwealth’s incarcerated population maintain the right to vote but face ‘de-facto’ disenfranchisement without any meaningful pathway to vote from prison or jail. The Democracy Behind Bars Coalition says H. 836 and S. 474, filed by Representatives Chynah Tyler and Liz Miranda and Senator Adam Hinds, would change that.
Given that Black communities and communities of color are hyper-policed and disproportionately incarcerated, the coalition argues, the legislation is a critical racial justice measure.
“Over the past year,” the coalition letter states, “we have witnessed rampant attempts to silence the political power of Black voters and voters of color, including attacks on the capitol to overturn the 2020 election results, and we have been reminded again and again of the impunity with which police are able to take Black lives. The need to build a democracy that is more racially equitable and truly accountable to all of our communities could not be more clear.”
Full Letter Below:
June 21, 2020
Representative Dan Ryan
House Chair of the Joint Committee on Election Laws
Senator Barry Finegold
Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Election Laws
Dear Chairman Ryan, Chairman Finegold, and members of the Joint Committee on Election Laws,
We, the Democracy Behind Bars Coalition and supporters, are writing to formally request that the Joint Committee on Elections Laws give the Jail-Based Voting Bill (H. 836 and S. 474) a timely, publicly-accessible hearing. We appreciate that some jail-based voting provisions in the VOTES Act were considered during the May 19th hearing, but we are concerned that the Legislature may advance election reform legislation without having heard from supporters of the Jail-Based Voting bill. It is of paramount importance for our partners who have been impacted by incarceration and disenfranchisement to have the opportunity to weigh in on the bill and its critical provisions while the committee is considering a broad election reform package.
Over the past year, we have witnessed rampant attempts to silence the political power of Black voters and voters of color, including attacks on the capitol to overturn the 2020 election results, and we have been reminded again and again of the impunity with which police are able to take Black lives. The need to build a democracy that is more racially equitable and truly accountable to all of our communities could not be more clear.
A hearing on the Jail-Based Voting bill is urgent: if these reforms are not considered and passed in time for our fall municipal elections, thousands of eligible voters will face insurmountable barriers to exercising their constitutional right from behind the wall. We hope you will put H.836/S.474 on the agenda for your next hearing, this summer, and deliberately center racial and political inequality as you develop election reform legislation this session.
We appreciate your leadership on these issues. If given a public hearing, we look forward to conveying the urgency of this legislation. From our experience organizing jail-based voting initiatives, and the lived experience of our currently and formerly incarcerated coalition leaders, we can assure you that without this legislation Massachusetts will continue to disenfranchise thousands of its disproportionately Black and POC eligible voters.
Thank you for your consideration, and we would be glad to meet with you and answer any questions.
Signed,
The Democracy Behind Bars Coalition
ACLU of Massachusetts
African American Coalition Committee (AACC)
Bristol County for Correctional Justice
Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School
Coalition for Social Justice
Common Cause Massachusetts
Decarcerate Western Massachusetts
Emancipation Initiative
Equal Citizens
Families for Justice as Healing
Greater Boston Legal Services CORI & Re-entry Project
Henrietta Barnes, MD, member City Life/Vida Urbana
Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action (JALSA)
Justice 4 Housing
Mass POWER
Massachusetts Jobs with Justice
Massachusetts Voter Table
MassVOTE
National Lawyers Guild-Mass Chapter
Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts Action Fund
New Beginnings Reentry Services, Inc.
Northampton Abolition Now
Pioneer Valley Project
Prison Policy Initiative
Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts
Sarah Koolsbergen, Member of Housing = Health and of the Massachusetts Coalition for Health Equity
The Criminal Justice Policy Coalition
The F8 Foundation
The National Council for Incarcerated & Formerly Incarcerated Women & Girls
The Real Cost of Prisons Project
The Sentencing Project
Union of Minority Neighborhoods
Unitarian Universalist Mass Action
Winning Writers
