Via The Sentencing Project, I encountered this little bit of love given to the U.S. by the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination:
The Committee remains concerned about the disparate impact that existing felon disenfranchisement laws have on a large number of persons belonging to racial, ethnic and national minorities, in particular African-American persons, who are disproportionately represented at every stage of the criminal justice system.
The article also mentions that 13% of all African-American men are precluded from voting due to felon disenfranchisement laws.
I’ll repeat something I’ve written before: while I certainly have no problem with removing certain miscreants from free society’s rights and privileges, I am uncomfortable with anything less than the notion that once a person has paid their debt to society, they should have the rights and privileges of a free person again.
And, if there’s concern that such reinstatement might pose a hazard to society…why are we releasing those folks?