A few weeks ago, former presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg raised 16 million dollars for Florida felons to vote in the upcoming presidential election. Floridians marked this as a controversial decision, due to Bloomberg’s incredibly public political status, but it shocked me that people even considered this a problem—partially because, when surveyed, only 30% of teens had a basic understanding of the voting rights of felons. That being said, the fact that a citizen of the United States can be taxed without being able to choose their representatives assaults both human and Constitutional rights.
The representation in a state often defines the rights of the prisoners that live there. Be it more funding to prisons or the elimination of private prisons, felons often find themselves at the will of people they had no choice in electing. Their lives have arguably been the most impacted of any group in the US, due to many living in government buildings themselves, but they lack the influence to impact their choices, leaving them left uncared for.
The North Carolina prison system allows workers to make income while in prison at a rate of ten cents per hour. According to The Legal Beagle, these prisoners must pay taxes on this income in most states, at a rate of fifteen percent. Despite their low-income status, they do not qualify for low-income tax credits widely provided to other citizens making as much as 70 times more than the prisoners. On that point alone, they pay the price and reap no benefits for it.
This becomes even more of an issue when you look at where this money goes. If you reside in a public prison, at least some of your money returns to you. However, according to The Sentencing Project, 8 percent of the prison population lives in private prisons, meaning that the money they pay in tax, never ends up supporting them.
Even once out of prison, felons have to jump through hoops to regain their rights, the most crippling of which comes in the form of restitution, the monetary reimbursement of any damage to the property or funds used by government officials to process the criminal. This sounds logical on the surface, but due to the low wages in prison, the figures don’t end up being realistic.
A felon could be expected to pay as much as $10,000, nowhere near the amount you receive in prison. In addition, according to the Urban Institute, 35% of former convicts don’t hold employment for up to eight months after release, and that study counted “employment” as any legal job at all, including jobs that only paid an average of $2 an hour when considering a 40 hour work week. Many of these felons won’t have the opportunity to vote again if a government official doesn’t change the rules, and guess what, they can’t vote for that official. The cycle never ends.
Why do we allow our government to limit the rights of any citizen? Perhaps they’ve committed crimes, but when set in a cycle that doesn’t provide representation or opportunities for gainful employment, not allowing them to vote to change these opportunities only encourages more crime. If a group of people continually has their rights stepped on, we should fight for them, no matter their past, for only they know the struggles they’ve experienced.
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