Episode 6: It's Not Just a Vote

The right to vote is a core building block for our democracy. We are taught that our vote matters and that voting is integral to our communities and our country. In this final episode of Humanity Unlocked, we confront a fundamental issue: roughly 45,000 people ‘on papers’ in Wisconsin do not have the right to vote, even though they are no longer in prison. Jerome Dillard, Executive Director of EXPO (Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing), calls this being “locked up on the outside.”

In this episode, we talk to Jerome and his colleague Tamra Oman about the implications of the disenfranchisement of individuals who have been incarcerated. After serving prison sentences themselves, they learned first-hand that civic health and community health depend on knowing that you belong.

Who Cannot Vote?

6,100,000 – The number of Americans who cannot vote because of felony disenfranchisement
4,697,000 – The number of Americans who cannot vote and are NOT in prison.
45,367 the number of Wisconsinites who cannot vote because of felony disenfranchisement. (Link to source)

In Wisconsin, voting rights are restored upon completion of sentence, including prison, parole, and probation.

Wisconsin’s probation supervision rate is 25% higher than the state’s incarceration rate (including prison and jail). In 2016, 988 of every 100,000 adults in Wisconsin were under probation supervision. Additionally, 453 adults in that 100,000 were under parole supervision. (Find more statistics Columbia University Justice Lab in this report.)

When compared to neighboring states (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and Minnesota), Wisconsin ranks first in parole supervision rates. It is about 1.5 times higher than both its next highest neighbor (Illinois, at 298 per 100,000 adults) and the national state average (303 per 100,000 adults). Nationally, Wisconsin has the seventh-highest parole supervision rate.

Unlock the Vote

In Wisconsin, an estimated 45,000 Wisconsin residents are under some form of community corrections and cannot vote. Sixty percent of those people are not incarcerated but are on parole, probation, or extended supervision (Link to a recent study from Columbia University).

In this episode of Human Powered, we learn about EXPO’s Unlock the Vote project and hear from EXPO organizers Jerome Dillard and Tamra Oman. The Unlock the Vote movement is based on the belief that, beyond getting a job, paying taxes, and rejoining society, there should also be an expectation that people who return to their communities after incarceration would regain their right to participate in the political process. (Source.)

EXPO stands for EX-incarcerated People Organizing and EXPO members provide support to each other grounded in the universal human dignity of everyone, including formerly and currently incarcerated people. They work to eliminate structural discrimination and to restore formerly incarcerated people to full participation in the life of our communities. This includes the right to vote as a fundamental form of participation in our nation’s democracy.

Check out Expo’s Unlock the Vote campaign here.

Criminal Disenfranchisement Laws Across the U.S.

Millions of Americans are excluded from our democratic process. Felony disenfranchisement laws, which deny people the right to vote based on felony convictions, vary by state. In some states, a person with a felony conviction never gets back the right to vote. In two states, people can vote while they are in prison. In others, the right to vote is restored after prison, probation, and parole. Other states restore the right to vote to people immediately after leaving prison. Click here for the interactive map that gives a state-by-state summary of voting disenfranchisement law.

Having the right to fully participate in our democracy may decrease recidivism rates. The Florida Parole Commission reports that “the overall three-year recidivism rate for all released inmates” was 33.1%, while the recidivism rate for released prisoners who were given their civil rights back was 11%. (Statistic from the commission report.)

Further thoughts from Robert Taliaferro

“For me, after serving over 38 years in the Wisconsin prison system, the act of disenfranchisement is literal: before I got out, I had to sign a piece of paper that stated that I would not vote. This bureaucratic requirement underscores the systemic nature of disenfranchisement, a system that seeks to silence and marginalize individuals even after they have served their time…

…When we empower individuals to participate in the democratic process, we foster a sense of responsibility and accountability, encouraging them to become active and engaged members of their communities. This, in turn, strengthens the very fabric of our democracy, creating a more inclusive and representative society.”

Read Robert's essay on voter disenfranchisement here.

Tamra

Tamra Oman is a Peer Support Administrator for EXPO of Wisconsin. She worked twelve years as a Human Services Program Coordinator Recovery Support Specialist at the Wisconsin Resource Center, a mental health treatment facility classified as a prison. She was the first “peer” to be hired in the state of Wisconsin to work in a prison in the past 30 years. Tamra is the 2015 recipient of the State of Wisconsin’s Virginia Hart award. She is a national speaker, consultant, group facilitator, and believes deeply in cultivating a culture of hope, healing, and compassion for all. She is a co-founder of Hope Road – Soul Punch Skill Training (with love), a consulting business.

Jerome

Jerome Dillard is Executive Director and one of the Founders of EXPO. He has a long history of working with and for system-impacted people. Based on his own experiences with incarceration, he sees prison as a form of genocide that drains people of hope for their future. Through EXPO, he seeks to restore that hope by advocating for change in the system that structurally discriminates against so many people and their families. His purpose is to ensure that system-impacted people are treated with dignity and respect and that they receive the resources and support they need to thrive in their communities upon release. Jerome is unique in being recognized by both system-impacted individuals and those on the outside as a leader in re-entry and reform.

Shannon

Shannon Ross is the founder and Executive Director of The Community and the Correcting the Narrative Campaign, which uses story-telling to promote acceptance of people with criminal records. Shannon was born and raised on Milwaukee’s north side, where he received a 17-year prison sentence when he was 19 years old. Since his release in 2020, he helped to found Paradigm Shyft, is an Education Trust fellow, a Marquette University EPP fellow, and a graduate of the Masters in Sustainable Peacebuilding program at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. Listen to his 'All In All Out' podcast highlights the success and humanity of people with criminal records.

Joshua

Joshua Wells is a poet and spoken word artist, a guitarist, a singer, and a songwriter, and self-proclaimed "incurable coffee snob with eclectic music obsessions and a passion for great art of all kinds." While he was in the Wisconsin prison system, he was part of Prose & Cons, a writing group led by Dasha Kelly Hamilton. Prose & Cons uses both written and spoken verse to restore voice to people who have been rendered voiceless. Listen to Joshua read one of his poems, "I hate the dark."

Robert

Robert Taliaferro is an artist and community activist currently living in Minnesota, after serving over 38 years of confinement. From 1985-1989 he edited The Prison Mirror newspaper at the Minnesota Correctional Institution at Stillwater. Robert is the author of Always Color Outside the Lines: Freedom for the Artist Within. Robert received a B.A. in 2023, was named outstanding student for the College of Individualized Studies, and gave the Spring 2023 commencement address at Metro State University in St. Paul, MN. He is also a member of an advisory committee with the Pollen Initiative to reinstitute the American Penal Press Awards to recognize journalistic excellence within the American prison system. Click here to read Robert's Op-Ed on voting rights.