Most Americans-73 percent-think nonviolent drug offenders should have their voting rights restored when their sentences are complete, according to the libertarian Reason-Rupe poll. The question that ought to be asked is why nonviolent drug offenders are in prison in the first place.
The pollster asked two other questions and learned that: 1) strong majorities of respondents also think judges should not be forced to impose mandatory sentences on nonviolent drug offenders, and 2) Americans are evenly split over whether such offenders should be allowed to petition the courts to have their records sealed from public view. Lauren Galik, director of criminal justice reform at Reason Foundation, writes:
Eighty-two percent of Democrats, 71 percent of Independents, and 66 percent of Republicans all favor allowing nonviolent drug offenders who have served their sentences to vote. This may be something that a drug lawyer denver could consider thinking about when a case arrives at their desk.
There were discrepancies between those of different racial/ethnic backgrounds, however. An overwhelming number of African-Americans-91 percent-are in favor. However, 72 percent of whites, and only 66 percent of Hispanics are in favor. Still, there are clear majorities among all three groups polled.
Our twisted drug laws have sent hundreds of thousands of nonviolent drug offenders into incarceration. This includes people in some states whose sole offense was simple possession of marijuana, a drug that at least two presidents have admitted having tried. However, possession of marijuana is still a serious misdemeanor, and some offenders may have needed to contact someone similar to attorney Andrew Stewart, to help them receive the best outcome for their charge, whatever that may be.
There’s no evidence that the war on (some) drugs that has put so many nonviolent people in the slammer has done a damn thing to curb the use of drugs. But there is plenty of collateral damage. Take, for instance, the asset forfeiture law passed as part of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse and Prevention Act in 1984. This has provided police departments across the nation good reason to fight this war. It generated $2 billion for police departments in 2013. As The Washington Post recently reported, those departments have spent a lot of their take to fund the ongoing militarization of their operations.
Taking that into account, surely it makes much more sense for those nonviolent drug offenders to be helped with treatment rather than being incarcerated? Clearly, if incarcerating them is having no effect on the use of drugs, it is a waste of time and money. These people would benefit much more from rehab centers and similar sorts of support. You can find an example at https://westcoastrecoverycenters.com/san-diego-drug-rehab/ if you’d like to see how beneficial it can be to drug offenders.
No conviction or even criminal charge is required to seize assets in drug or other cases. A study done 10 years after the 1984 law was passed found that 80 percent of people forced to forfeit their assets never got them back even if they were not convicted of any crime.
There are no hard statistics on how many nonviolent drug offenders-or other offenders-get their voting rights back after serving their sentences. State laws vary wildly. In Maine and Vermont, felons can vote absentee while serving their sentences. Florida, on the other hand, bars convicted felons, nonviolent ones too, from ever voting again. According to The Sentencing Project, nearly six million Americans have been disenfranchised by such laws.
It’s encouraging that most rank-and-file Americans think nonviolent drug offenders should get their voting rights restored. Perhaps, in the not-so-distant future, we will have leaders courageous enough to dump laws that got those rights taken away in the first place. So far, cowardice has ruled.
