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Community Groups To Host Workshops Across the State To Help People with Felony Convictions Regain their Voting and Civil Rights
July 18, 2003
MIAMI - Activists from Miami will join other community organizers from across Florida in hosting simultaneous workshops on July 26 to help people with felony convictions regain their right to vote and hold certain state occupational licenses.
There will be a workshop in Miami from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. July 26 in Room 2101 of the Miami-Dade Community College Library, 11380 NW 27th Ave. The Miami event is one of nine workshops that will be held on the same day in Cocoa, Ft. Lauderdale, Ft. Myers, Orlando, Pensacola, St. Petersburg and Tampa.
The workshops are being hosted around the state by the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, which is composed of nearly forty non-partisan local, state, and national organizations dedicated to bringing an end to Florida's voting and civil rights ban.
"The mass disenfranchisement of ex-felons is the overriding civil rights crisis in our state," said Howard Simon, Executive Director of the ACLU of Florida, which is coordinating statewide efforts to assist individuals with the application for restoration of civil rights. "Until automatic restoration is achieved, we will continue to help people run the gauntlet that lies between them and their most fundamental right as citizens - the right to vote."
Workshop participants will be provided with one-on-one assistance, required forms, and all the information they need to apply for the restoration of their civil rights. Community activists and civil rights attorneys will be on hand to answer questions about Florida's voting and civil rights ban and to discuss possible solutions to the problem, which impacts more than 500,000 Floridians who have lost the right to vote and hold some state occupational licenses. A disproportionate number of people affected by the state's ban are African American.
Florida is one of only eight states that strip all felons of their civil and voting rights even after they have completed their sentences. Loss of civil rights takes away not only the right to vote, but also the right to hold public office, serve on a jury and qualify for certain types of state licenses necessary for many jobs.
"This is about giving people a voice in their community once they've paid their debt to society," said Courtenay Strickland, Coordinator of the ACLU of Florida's Voting Rights Restoration Campaign. "But it is also about empowering people so that they can find work, pay their taxes, and support their families."
