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Felonious Junk: Politicians give lip service to reform

Politicians are positioning themselves for a run for Governor in 2006. Charlie Crist, who has actually been an okay AG, is suddenly paying attention to reforming the antiquated and demeaning Florida felon clemency procedure.

Attorney General Charlie Crist said Wednesday that the state may soon make it easier for some felons to get their civil rights restored without having to go through the full clemency process.

Crist is one of four members of the Clemency Board, and he said that although fully automatic restoration of every felon's rights isn't likely to be agreed upon any time soon, a faster, easier process, including possible automatic restoration for some who have committed minor crimes, may be considered by the board as early as next month.

Florida is one of seven states where felons are permanently prevented from voting, holding public office and getting a license for many occupations - civil rights that can be restored only through an arduous clemency process.

"It's got to be sort of a progressional thing, but I think we do need to progress," Crist said.
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Talk of reforms follows a July court ruling that ordered Florida to make it easier for felons to get their rights back.

In a case brought by black lawmakers, a state appeals court ruled that the Department of Corrections wasn't following state law requiring prisons to provide departing inmates with an application for a Clemency Board hearing.
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Randy Berg, the lawyer who represented the black caucus in the lawsuit, said the issue has gotten lots of attention in Florida because of the fight over whether felons are getting their voting rights restored adequately.

"It more importantly affects their ability to get decent-paying jobs," Berg said. Without civil rights, they can't get a license to be a barber, a contractor or one of about 50 other occupations.

"If we want to keep people on the straight and narrow as they get out of prison, it's kind of a no-brainer you need to restore their civil rights," Berg said.

Don’t hold your breath. Jeb! is largely responsible for this backlog, and he could make it go away with a wave of his hand, but unless he can cynically figure a way to personally benefit, he’s got no motivation to change this backward, racist system.

Before Gov. Bush took office in January 1999, the average felon regained voting rights with a hearing five years after being released, the Herald found. Now, the average is eight years. Recently released felons who don't qualify for administrative review won't vote for president until 2012 — if their three minutes goes well. If clemency is rejected, the applicant won't be told why. Under laws designed to protect witnesses, he can't review his own file to find out if it is accurate.

Viewing those files is critical because the system is so fraught with error. The Herald found that computer glitches and poor communication dropped 100,000 felons from the clemency process from 1992 to 2001. It found that another 50,000 felons who served time in county jails were never offered a chance to apply. Florida is one of just seven states that don't automatically restore felons rights. About a half-million Floridians have not had their rights restored.

The list of rights felons must petition the state to restore goes beyond voting, which has grabbed the most attention after state officials bungled efforts during the last two presidential elections to purge felons from voters roll. Without clemency, felons also can't serve on juries or be licensed as nurses, electrical contractors or firefighters, limiting options for people whose options already are limited.

As The Palm Beach Post reported three years ago, the governor toughened the clemency rules when he came into office, adding 200 crimes to the list of offenses that force felons to wait for their three-minute hearing. While the governor claims that he is processing clemency cases faster than his predecessors, the Herald showed that his new rules are causing the system to back up more. The governor has promised reform. While Attorney General Charlie Crist, who serves on the clemency board and wants to be governor, argues for automatically restoring rights to felons who commit lesser crimes, the governor won't say what specific reforms he envisions. Here's one: Gov. Bush could single-handedly end the charade and automatically restore felons rights, as was the case before 1991, when early prison releases forced Gov. Chiles to replace automatic restoration of rights with stricter clemency procedures.

Unfortunately, rather than actual reform, Jeb! prefers to let ex-felons fester while God sorts ‘em out.

Jeb Bush came to visit for the holidays and said, “I can’t think of a better place to reflect on the awesome love of our Lord Jesus than to be here at Lawtey Correctional. God bless you.”

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In fact, the InnerChange Initiative required prisoners to study the Bible and to attend church regularly for three months after release. Failure to comply is reported to prison authorities and can impact release and parole restrictions. In Lawtey, Science & Theology News describes an evening service:

“My job is to guide you to a personal relationship with the god of your faith. Amen?” (the leader) asks, moving from one man to the next and resting his palms on their shoulders. “And the only way I know how to do that is prayer.”

The leader is asking for an "amen" back from each prisoner. Jews don't shout out individual "amens" like evangelical Christians do. Neither do Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, or Native Americans. Imagine the social pressure on a prisoner who does not, in fact, reply with a hearty "amen" in front of his peers - and under the eyes of the warden, who was sitting in a back row during the service.

The Prison Fellowship Initiative actively participates in the faith-based prison initiative. Its leader, Pat Nolan, is refreshingly honest about his motivations, in contrast to the Bush brothers: “We don’t do this because it works. We do it because it’s what Jesus calls us to,” Nolan says. “We do it because Jesus was explicit, and we think that Christianity is the way, the truth and the life. That’s what we have to share. If we try to get it down to a generic faith thing, it loses its meaning.”

Much more on Florida felon rights.