Vince’s Daily Journal – Day 16
———————————–
I’m incredibly concerned about the future of criminal justice reform in this country. The past decade has seen a major shift in how the parties address criminal justice. The Republican party, which in the past has been notoriously “tough on crime”, is now led by the first person to pass major reform in decades (the First Step Act), and is himself currently a convicted felon (I’m making absolutely NO comment on the validity of the conviction, I want no part of that argument, I leave that to our courts). The Democratic party – the party who claims criminal justice reform as ‘their’ platform – up until this last weekend, has been led by the man who introduced mandatory minimums, possibly the worst piece of criminal justice legislation in American history (though, as someone who’s judge said he would’ve given me less time if it weren’t for that law, I am very biased), and is now led by a woman who was a notoriously tough prosecutor. I have absolutely no idea how someone who’s primary issue is criminal justice reform is supposed to vote these days.
As unlikely as it is that one of our presidential – or any – candidates would ever read this, I would like to offer my thoughts all the same – you never know.
There are hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised Americans in our prison systems, and when you include our loved ones, many of whom would consider voting against their traditional affiliation if there were a candidate who made prison and sentencing reform a central platform, that number rises to a million or two. That’s more than enough to turn the tide of a close election, as this one is projected to be. Even more so, if a party passed a law giving the right to vote back to incarcerated citizens, that party could all but guarantee itself roughly a hundred thousand votes, immediately. We inmates, we’re not stupid. We probably follow the news closer than pretty much any other demographic, both in hope for change, and because, honestly, we have the time. We all know that President Biden spearheaded the campaign to get mandatory minimums and the vicious crack laws put in place, back in his days as a legislator. We all know that President Trump is the one who gave us the First Step Act, which undid much of the damage Biden did regarding crack laws, but left swaths of the prison population (including people with sexual offenses like myself and half the population of this prison) completely unhelped. We All know Vice President Harris was a prosecutor, and we’ve all experienced how most prosecutors will do anything, including smearing our loved ones names and character, to put us behind bars for as long as possible. I worry that now, we’ll have no one in our corner. If you’re a politician running for office, please recognize the humanity and value of those of us in prison, and help us help you get into office. If you’re a citizen who plans on voting, call your candidates and encourage them to take a stand on prison and sentencing reform. If you’re a citizen who doesn’t plan on voting, WAKE UP! If you don’t vote, you don’t exist to politicians, and if you don’t exist to politicians, you’ll be the next marginalized population. We need our voices heard, and those of us behind bars cannot do it without the help of people on the outside. This moment of political upheaval is a prime opportunity to push BOTH parties to make a huge change in the criminal justice world.
So please, call your candidates and push them, and don’t vote along party lines – vote for the person who will actually make a change in this system, whoever that ends up being.
