A small group of us protest for racial justice across the street from the jail each Thursday. We saw the activity outside the jail with many patrol cars on the lawn and a steady parade of well dressed people going in and out that day but had no idea what was happening inside.
Nice to know that Mr. Glover and others have dedicated so much to raise the voices of people who have been silenced. Thank you for reporting on this, @burness.bsky.social
On October 3, candidates for the Michigan Supreme Court and Court of Appeals came to the Flint jail to speak with and court votes from incarcerated people.
People in jails are almost always are eligible to vote, but almost never get such direct access to politicians.
Far from attending candidate forums, most people in US jails can hardly even access a ballot.
Steps that should be pretty simple for most of the population—registering, signing up to vote by mail, dropping off a ballot, curing a ballot error—can be insurmountable struggles if you're incarcerated.
Well, the sheriffs who run local jails in this country are rarely motivated to help people in their custody with voting. This (from a story I wrote a few months ago) is an example of what vote-by-jail can look like under that status quo:
The county jail in Flint really stands out: It not only puts in uncommon effort to ensure people in custody know their voting rights and can easily register and obtain a ballot, but it goes a quantum leap further by inviting candidates to appeal face-to-face to in-custody voters.
To hear the jail staff tell it, all the pro-voting stuff that goes on in the Flint jail is part of a broader program to "unify" incarcerated people with the free world, and to recognize the inherent value of every person detained.
Here's what the Flint sheriff, Chris Swanson, has to say about that:
You want an accurate account of what happened to Flint, watch Michael Moore’s Roger and Me. And since the shops closed in the 80s and all the other businesses connected to the shops, nothing has replaced those opportunities. And until they do, crime will remain high and people remain disaffected.
Comments
People in jails are almost always are eligible to vote, but almost never get such direct access to politicians.
Steps that should be pretty simple for most of the population—registering, signing up to vote by mail, dropping off a ballot, curing a ballot error—can be insurmountable struggles if you're incarcerated.
Well, the sheriffs who run local jails in this country are rarely motivated to help people in their custody with voting. This (from a story I wrote a few months ago) is an example of what vote-by-jail can look like under that status quo:
Here's what the Flint sheriff, Chris Swanson, has to say about that:
also, use alt text pls
In many ways, this jail is not so radically different from others, but rather is just another embodiment of the callousness of mass incarceration.
Thank you for caring. I haven’t seen much written on this issue.
I disagree with depriving felons or jailed people of the right to vote.
But I feel like there is a link between this and our history of depriving black people of this right.