Home »
News &
Events » News Archive » 2001 Press Releases
Community Groups Sponsor Town Hall Meeting To Help Ex-Offenders
Restore Voting Rights
January 18, 2001
Liberty City, Florida ? In an effort to help ex-offenders navigate through the lengthy and complicated application process of restoring their voting rights, a coalition of community groups is sponsoring a town hall meeting to educate former offenders on how to regain their right to vote.
One of several steps that will be taken in coming weeks to jump-start efforts to restore ex-offenders' voting rights, the town hall meeting will be at 3 p.m. Jan. 27, 2001 at the African Cultural Arts Center, 6161 NW 22nd Ave.
Florida Senators Kendrick Meek, Darryl Jones and State Rep. Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall, along with Miami-Dade Commissioner Barbara Carey-Shuler, have been invited to participate in the meeting, which is sponsored by Brothers of the Same Mind, Inner City Grass Roots Civic Coalition and A New Start ? Liberty-City based grassroots organizations that work to help former inmates reintegrate into society.
John de Leon, President of the Great-Miami Chapter of the ACLU of Florida will attend the meeting, along with other attorneys from the ACLU of Florida and Florida Justice Institute who will assist ex-offenders with the process of restoring their right to vote.
One of the groups pushing to restore ex-offenders' voting rights, the ACLU of Florida announced plans January 17 to file a class action lawsuit within coming weeks to remove government barriers that make it nearly impossible for individuals with past felony convictions to restore their voting rights.
Convicted felons in Florida are stripped of their right to vote. Florida is one of only 14 states that fails to restore those rights upon release from custody or supervision. The end result is the mass disenfranchisement of more than 600,000 people, many of whom are voting-age black males. Approximately, 31.2% of the state's total number of disenfranchised felons are black.
In order for ex-offenders to legally vote, they must go through a lengthy application process with the Governor's Office of Executive Clemency and ultimately the Clemency Board ? made up of the Governor and his cabinet members. The Department of Corrections is legally required to ensure that all materials are forwarded to the governor's office prior to inmates' release dates, yet many ex-offenders claim the prison system isn't fulfilling its obligations in a timely manner.
For more information, contact:
Haneef Hamidullah, Inner City Grass Roots Civic Coalition, (305) 836-1926; Brian Dennis, President, Brothers of the Same Mind, (305) 305-635-4177:Earnest Thomas, Director of A New Start, (305) 409-0796: Howard Simon, Executive Director, ACLU of Florida, (305) 576-2337
