An estimated 4 million US residents are barred from voting as a result of they’ve a felony conviction. That features most Individuals serving jail sentences.
However final week at San Quentin, the 172-year-old jail within the San Francisco Bay Space, residents had a uncommon alternative to weigh in on a US election the place a lot is on the road.
As incarcerated residents jogged on the yard and performed pickleball, dozens stopped by the jail’s schooling division and slid paper ballots right into a locked metallic field with an American flag and the phrase “vote” painted on it.
The voters had been taking part in a mock election, organized by Juan Moreno Haines, a journalist incarcerated at San Quentin, and Mount Tamalpais Faculty (MTC), a liberal arts establishment based mostly on the jail.
“It’s essential for me to have a voice, particularly if it’s being heard on the skin,” mentioned Michael Scott, 45, who is because of be launched subsequent yr after having been incarcerated for greater than twenty years, earlier than casting his vote.
California, like most US states, prohibits incarcerated folks with felonies from voting, affecting greater than 90,000 folks in state prisons. The US is a worldwide chief in its incarceration price and an outlier in its sweeping disenfranchisement; a latest report recognized greater than 70 nations with no or only a few restrictions on voting based mostly on prison data. Roughly 1.7% of the US voting-age inhabitants can’t vote, with Black Individuals disproportionately excluded and restrictions doubtlessly affecting election outcomes.
For San Quentin’s election, MTC, which not too long ago grew to become the primary US accredited school completely working behind bars, directed incarcerated college students in its American authorities class to design ballots, selecting which races and initiatives to ballot.
MTC despatched all 3,247 residents a poll. After per week of voting, 341 ballots had been returned, representing 10.5% of the inhabitants. Fifteen volunteers from MTC and the League of Ladies Voters tallied the outcomes: Kamala Harris gained 57.2% of votes, and Donald Trump gained 28.2%. Claudia De la Cruz of the Peace and Freedom occasion, a socialist ticket, gained 3.5% of votes; the Inexperienced occasion’s Jill Stein gained 2.6%; Robert F Kennedy Jr gained 2.1%; and Chase Oliver, a libertarian, gained 0.3%.
Within the California senate race, Adam Schiff, the Democratic candidate, defeated Republican Steve Garvey with 33.7% of votes, although practically half of respondents left this query clean. Practically 60% favored Prop 5, which might increase reasonably priced housing funding; 78% favored Prop 32, which might improve the minimal wage; and 57.2% rejected Prop 36, which might improve penalties for sure drug and theft crimes.
Prop 6 would change the state structure to abolish compelled jail labor, making it a high-stakes measure for incarcerated folks. Simply greater than 77% of respondents backed it.
The state of California, like most others within the US, permits for incarcerated folks to be compelled to work in opposition to their will. California income from this type of involuntary servitude, with residents offering very important companies for negligible wages. Most individuals in jail presently make lower than $0.75 (£0.58) an hour for his or her jobs.
Prop 6 is supposed to permit incarcerated folks to decide on their jobs and prohibit prisons from punishing those that refuse an task. Dante Jones, 41, mentioned he wished he might vote for Prop 6 on 5 November: “We’ve obtained legalized plantations … They are saying they need us to be residents, they need to rehabilitate us, however then they don’t do something that enables that to occur. Technically, by the structure, we’re slaves and so they can whip our backs.”
Jones mentioned he hopes if Prop 6 passes, incarcerated folks can earn higher wages to afford commissary, together with meals.
Jones’ evaluation of the presidential race was grim: “I believe we’re shedding both method.” He reluctantly supported Harris regardless of her prosecutorial file and repute for harshly punishing Black defendants: “She ain’t for her folks. Are you aware what number of Black and brown folks she put in jail? … She’s gonna be like a Invoice Clinton, a conservative Democrat who is hard on crime.” Regardless of these misgivings, he couldn’t abdomen supporting Trump: “Since he’s been in politics, he’s been courting racist white individuals who suppose that individuals who aren’t white are taking their nation.”
Jaime Joseph Jaramillo, 53, mentioned he supported Trump, appreciating his promise of mass deportations to “eliminate the drug cartels” and favoring him on international coverage: “I need him to bomb Iran and drill, drill, drill.” He expressed sympathy for Palestinians, however mentioned: “I need him to take out Hamas.”
Nate Venegas, 47, mentioned he, too, favored Trump as a result of “our system wants someone who’s not a politician”. He thinks Trump could possibly be extra swayed on jail reform, citing the previous president’s resolution to pardon a girl’s drug offense after lobbying by Kim Kardashian whereas he was in workplace. However he additionally known as Trump a “clown” and mentioned he disliked his vigorous assist of capital punishment: “I don’t consider there ought to be a loss of life penalty. I don’t consider a person ought to kill one other man.”
Scott voted for Harris “as a result of she provides me one thing to look ahead to. Trump hasn’t given me something that he plans to do, besides lock down the borders. We now have issues with homelessness, jobs and local weather change.”
Gabriel Moctezuma, 32, mentioned he thought-about Harris “the lesser of two evils” and supported her on reproductive rights and immigration: “I believe there could be a variety of progressive adjustments. There have been a variety of human rights taken away from folks and she or he’ll deliver a few of these insurance policies again.” However he worries about divisions within the nation: “Regardless of who wins, this nation goes to be break up and I’m actually hoping that there’s not the identical quantity of violence as January 6.”
On their ballots, some provided handwritten notes about why they voted:
“We now have not at all times had the proper to vote. So I want to forged my vote for every of my [African American] ancestors that was denied entry.”
“I solely ever voted as soon as in my life and I need to achieve this once more.”
“Democracy is at stake.”
“I need to really feel like I’m part of historical past.”
“[I’ve] been in jail for 29 years and by no means had a chance to vote.”
Vermont, Maine and Washington DC are the solely locations within the US the place all incarcerated folks can vote.
Amy Jamgochian, the chief tutorial officer at MTC, mentioned the disenfranchisement of incarcerated folks was a reminder that the US is “very confused as a society about what incarceration is for”.
“Is it for depriving folks of humanity and rights? Will that assist them? Are we making an attempt to assist them? Or are we simply making an attempt to warehouse them? If [the goal] is rehabilitation, then I don’t suppose we need to dehumanize them. We need to really deeply respect their humanity, together with giving them the proper to vote.”
Venegas, who has been incarcerated for 25 years and is a part of a civic engagement group at San Quentin, mentioned he did really feel society’s views on the aim of the prison justice system are shifting. He famous how, 20 years in the past, the system was primarily centered on punishment, with little curiosity in getting folks prepared to return house.
Final yr, the California governor, Gavin Newsom, renamed San Quentin a “rehabilitation heart”, pledging to show the jail into a fancy resembling a school campus centered on programming and re-entry.
It’s simply one more reason why efforts just like the mock election matter, Venegas argued. “Individuals are beginning to take heed to us and care about having us as neighbors after we get out,” he mentioned. “So our voices actually matter … and I’d give something to have the ability to vote and have a say.”
