Statement of Representative Danny K. Davis

Testimony Before the Constitution Subcommittee of

House Judiciary Committee

Mr. Chairman, and Members of the Subcommittee I want to thank you for the opportunity to testify on such an important issue. The question before us today tugs at the heart of our democracy and stirs the conscience of the nation. The question is whether ex-felons should be given the right to vote in federal elections after they have served their sentences. I believe they should. Therefore, I support Representative Conyers legislation H.R. 906, that would restore the right to vote in federal elections to ex-felons.

Our nation was founded on supposedly democratic principles. The forefathers of this nation pinned a great document called the Declaration of Independence, in that document they proclaimed that all men were created equal, and entitled to certain unalienable rights. But yet slavery was allowed to exist and women were not treated equal. We fought a bloody Civil War over slavery and still there is a sense that remnants of slavery remain. The right to vote must be intertwined with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It is one of the most basic and fundamental rights of citizenship in a democracy. To deny the ballot box to individuals who have paid their debt to society is akin to rendering them voiceless in their own home.

Disenfranchisement laws are a vestige of medieval times when offenders were banished from the community and suffered what is likened to civil death. Brought from Europe to the colonies, they gained new political importance at the end of the 19th Century, when many Southern states revisited them as a way to exclude blacks from the vote. The fact that we legally deny people the right to vote after they have served their time is indeed troubling.

In forty-six states and the District of Columbia, criminal disenfranchisement laws deny the vote to all convicted adults in prison. Thirty-two states also disenfranchise felons on parole; twenty-nine disenfranchise those on probation. And fourteen states permanently disenfranchise ex-offenders who have fully served their sentences. Currently, an estimated 3.9 million U.S. citizens are disenfranchised, including over 1 million who have completed their sentences. Implementation of these laws have had tremendous impact on African American males. Thirteen percent of African American men or 1.4 million are disenfranchised. Of that number, 440,000 have completed their sentences and paid their debt to society. A report issued by the Sentencing Project in conjunction with Human Rights watch revealed that in Alabama and Florida, 31 percent of all Black men are permanently disenfranchised---unbelievable! In Iowa, Mississippi, New Mexico, Virginia, and Wyoming one in four or 24 to 28 percent of Black men are permanently disenfranchised. In Delaware, one in five black men or 20 percent are permanently disenfranchised. In Texas, one in five black men or 20 percent are permanently disenfranchised. And Black men represent less than 6 percent of the total U.S. population.

Clearly, this is not a White or a Black issue, this is a human rights issue, this is a test of democracy, and this is an American issue. It is clear that Blacks are disproportionately affected by these laws. An unacceptable trend is continuing in our nation with respect to prisons. We have what some have described as a prison industrial complex mentality, a new growth industry, a lock them up and throw away the key and deny them the right to vote when they get out. The impact of drugs, unemployment and antiquated sentencing laws have our prisons bursting at the seams. In the past 12 years the number of Americans in jails and prisons has doubled. At the end of 1985, there were 744,208 people locked up; by mid-1998, that number rose to 1.8 million. I suspect that the number will continue to rise.

Disenfranchisement laws are inconsistent with our democratic principles. With this bill we have a unique opportunity to move from the dark ages to the light of a new sense of democracy and belonging for individuals who have paid their debt to society. If we are to live as an enlightened nation then we must not only talk rehabilitation, and reclamation but we must practice it. Moreover, rehabilitation and reclamation must not only include helping ex-felons get jobs and a place to live once they get back into society, but it must include encouraging and providing them opportunities to experience full citizenship, including the right to vote.

To those who will argue against this bill, I ask you, what will America gain by denying ex-felons the right to experience the fullness of this great democracy. Are you saying that the prodigal son or daughter can never again come home and be accepted as a full member of the family. Is that the standard we want for our nation? I hope not, and so Mr. Chairman, I urge, I implore, I importune this honorable committee to look favorably upon the Conyers Bill and make democracy available to all of our law abiding citizens.

Thank you.