Top

Journal of African American Studies

Published in:

28-09-2015 | ARTICLES

Felon Disenfranchisement Laws and the Feedback Loop of Political Exclusion: the Case of Florida

Authors: Anthony Jamal Phillips, Natalie Deckard

Published in: Journal of African American Studies | Issue 1/2016

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config

AI-assisted search

Off

Abstract

Violence against Black bodies in Florida is so widespread that the national #BlackLivesMatter movement was born in the state on the night young Trayvon Martin was killed with impunity. This research investigates the socio-political context in which this violence is both legal and apparently accepted, problematizing the citizenship status of members of the Floridian African-American community—over 23 % of whom cannot vote due to stringent state felony disenfranchisement legislation. This research estimates the effects of this widespread electoral exclusion on Floridian elections and, resultantly, on the legislative realities of the state. We find that the form and extent of felony disenfranchisement in Florida have likely put the Right Party in power, worked to create legislation that is counter to the interests of African-Americans, and ultimately achieved a marginalization of the population so deleterious to its citizenship status as to put into question the worth of its members’ lives.

next article Explaining African-American Cell Phone Usage Through the Social Shaping of Technology Approach

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Available only for authorised users

Of the felons disenfranchised in Florida in 2010, 33.76 % were African-American (Sentencing Project 2014). Assuming that potential voters became eligible for clemency at equal rates, irrespective of race, Crist would have reinstated the rights of African-Americans in proportion to their relative population among felons—implying that 33.76 % of reinstated voters, or 52,442, were African-American.

Agamben, G. (1998). Homo sacer: sovereign power and bare life. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Alexander, M. (2012). The New Jim Crow: mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New York: The New Press.

Arendt, H. (1973). The origins of totalitarianism. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Beckman, L. (2009). The frontiers of democracy: the right to vote and its limits. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRef

Butterfield, F. (2004). 2 Studies Find Laws on Felons Forbid Many Black Men to Vote. Retrieved February 19, 2013, from New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/23/politics/campaign/23felons.html?_r=0

Cacho, L. M. (2012). Social death: racialized rightlessness and the criminalization of the unprotected. New York: NYU Press.

Census Bureau. (2015). Voting and Registration in the Election of November, 2014 - Detailed Tables. Retrieved from Voting and Registration: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/socdemo/voting/publications/p20/2014/tables.html

Chaney, C., & Robertson, R. (2013). Racism and police brutality in America. Journal of African American Studies, 17, 480–505.CrossRef

Chin, G. J. (2013). Reconstruction, Felon Disenfranchisement, and the Right to Vote:. Retrieved febraury 19, 2013, from Sentencing Project: http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/fd_reconstruction_fr_rtv.pdf

Crist, C. (2007). Justice: Let's Restore Ex-Felons' Civil RIghts. The Miami Hearld, p. A13.

Davis, A. (2007). Race and criminalization: Black Americans and the punishment industry. In J. Healy & E. O'Brien (Eds.), Race, ethnicity, and gender selected readings (pp. 204–222). New York: Sage Publications.

Disenfranchisement News. (2012, August 21). Retrieved Dec 3, 2013, from Sentencing Project: http://www.sentencingproject.org/detail/news.cfm?news_id=1372

Enhancing Capacities and Confronting Controversies in Criminal Justice . (1993, October 15). Retrieved January 3, 2014, from Bureau of Justice Statistics: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCQQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncjrs.gov%2Fpdffiles1%2FDigitization%2F145318NCJRS.pdf&ei=HdngUtm0KuK_sQTe7YCwCQ&usg=AFQjCNE6-eWW1YCrY1xqADrxeZizCqGfAA&bvm=bv.59568121,d.b2I

Ewald, A., & Rottinghaus, B. (2009). Criminal disenfranchisement in an international perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRef

Fasching-Varner, K., Reynolds, R., Albert, K., & Martin, L. (2014). Trayvon Martin, race, and American justice. Boston: Sense Publishers.CrossRef

Florida State Senate. (2015). Bill List. Retrieved from The Florida Senate: http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bills/2015B

Garza, A. (2014). A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement. The Feminist Wire

Gilens, M. (2009). Why Americans hate welfare: race, media, and the politics of antipoverty policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Gillespie, A., & King-Meadows, T. (2014). Black turn-out and the 2014 midterms. Washington, DC: The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

Giroux, H. (2008). Beyond the biopolitics of disposability: rethinking neoliberalism in the new gilded age. Social Identities, 14(5), 587–620.CrossRef

Goffman, A. (2009). On the run: wanted men in a Philadelphia ghetto. American Sociological Review, 74(3), 339–357.CrossRef

Gottschalk, M. (2009). The Long Reach of the Caceral State: The Politics of Crime, Mass Imprisonment, and Penal Reform in the United States and Abroad. Pennsylvania, United State.

Harvey, A. (1994). Ex-Felon Disenfranchisement And Its Influence On The Black Vote: The Need For A Second Look. Retrieved November 23, 2013, from University of Pennsylvania Law Review: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3312504

Highton, B. (2004). Voter registration and turnout in the United States. Perspectives on Politics, 2(03), 507–515.CrossRef

Hutchings, V., & Valentino, N. (2004). The Centrality of Race in American Politics. Annual Review of Political Science, 383-408.

Kerby, S. (2012). The Top 10 Most Startling Facts About People of Color and Criminal Justice in the United States. Retrieved Dec 1, 2013, from Center For American Progress: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2012/03/13/11351/the-top-10-most-startling-facts-about-people-of-color-and-criminal-justice-in-the-united-states/

Kidd, Q., Diggs, H., Farooq, M., & Murray, M. (2007). Black voters, Black candidates, and social issues: does party identification matter? Social Science Quarterly, 88(1), 165–176.CrossRef

Kinder, D., & Winter, N. (2001). Exploring the Racial Divide: Blacks, Whites, and Opinion on National Policy. American Journal of Political Science, 439-456.

Kriesi, H. (2004). Political context and opportunity. In D. Snow, S. Soule, & H. Kriesi (Eds.), The Blackwell companion to social movements (pp. 67–90). New York: Wiley.

Lawson, T. F. (2012). A fresh cut in an old wound—a critical analysis of the Trayvon Martin killing: the public outcry, the prosecutors’ discretion, and the Stand Your Ground law. University of Florida Journal of Law and Public Policy, 23, 271–310.

Lindsey, T. B. (2015). Post-Ferguson: a “herstorical” approach to Black violability. Feminist Studies, 41(1), 232–237.

Litwin, N. P. (2003). Defending an unjust system—how Johnson v. Bush upheld felon disenfranchisement and perpetuated voter inequality in Florida. Connecticut Public Interest Law Journal, 3, 237.

Man, A. (2014). Courting All Voters: Governor's Race Hinges on Voters who Usually Skip Midterm Elections. Sun Sentinel.

Manza, J., & Uggen, C. (2004). Punishment and democracy: disenfranchisement of nonincarcerated felons in the United States. Perspectives on Politics, 2(03), 491–505.CrossRef

Manza, J., & Uggen, C. (2006). Locked out: felon disenfranchisement and American democracy. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.CrossRef

Mapping Police Violence. (2015). State Comparison Tool. Retrieved July 31, 2015, from Mapping Police Violence: http://mappingpoliceviolence.org/states

Marshall, T. (1950). Citizenship and Social Class. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Massey, D., & Denton, N. (1993). American apartheid: segregation and the making of the underclass. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Massoglia, M., Firebaugh, G., & Warner, C. (2013). Racial variation in the effect of incarceration on neighborhood attainment. American Sociological Review, 78(1), 142–165.CrossRef

Mauer, M. (2004). Felon Disenfranchisement:. Retrieved February 2013, 19, from Sentencing Project: http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/fd_fdpolicywhosetime.pdf

McMillen, N. R. (1990). Dark journey: Black Mississippians in the age of Jim Crow. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Mustard, D. B. (2001). Racial, ethnic, and gender disparities in sentencing: evidence from the US federal courts. Journal of Law and Economics, 44(1), 285–314.CrossRef

National Broadcasting Corporation. (2015). Exit Polls Show Mixed Feelings on Crist, Scott. Retrieved from NBC 6: http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Exit-Polls-Mixed-Feelings-on-Crist-Scott-281538711.html

Ohline, H. A. (1971). Republicanism and Slavery: Origins of the Three-Fifths Clause in the United States Constitution. The William and Mary Quarterly: A Magazine of Early American History, 563-584.

Quadagno, J. (1994). The color of welfare: how racism undermined the war on poverty. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Riker, W. H., & Ordeshook, P. C. (1968). A theory of the calculus of voting. American Political Science Review, 62(01), 25–42.CrossRef

Roberts, D. E. (2004). The Social and Moral Cost of Mass Incarceration in African American Communities. Stanford Law Review, 1271-1305.

Roman, J. (2013). Race, justifiable homicide, and Stand your Ground laws: analysis of FBI Supplementary Homicide Report Data. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute.

Ross, L. P. (2007). "Transmogrification of Self-Defense by national Rifle Association-Inspired Statutes: From the Doctrine of Retreat to the Right to Stand Your Ground. Southern Universty Law Review, 1.

Rules of Executive Clemency (Florida State Consitution April 5, 2007).

Rumbaugh, A. (2012). Few Felons Regain Right to Vote in Florida. Retrieved January 2014, 1, from Florida Center for Investigative Reporting: http://fcir.org/2012/08/13/few-felons-regain-right-to-vote-in-florida/

Russell, M. M. (1991). Entering great America: reflections on race and the convergence of progressive legal theory and practice. Hastings Law Journal, 43, 749.

Schanzenbach, M. (2005). Racial and sex disparities in prison sentences: the effect of district‐level judicial demographics. The Journal of Legal Studies, 34(1), 57–92.CrossRef

Somers, M. R. (2008). Genealogies of citizenship: markets, statelessness, and the right to have rights. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Soss, J. (1999). Lessons of welfare: policy design, political learning, and political action. American Political Science Review, 93(02), 363–380.CrossRef

Soss, J., Fording, R., & Schram, S. (2011). Disciplining the poor: neoliberal paternalism and the persistent power of race. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRef

Steffensmeier, D., Ulmer, J., & Kramer, J. (1998). The interaction of race, gender, and age in criminal sentencing: the punishment cost of being young, Black, and male. Criminology, 36, 763.CrossRef

Sweeney, D., Choi, A., Schallom, R., & Huriash, L. J. (2015). Florida among Nation's Toughest Places to Have Voting Rights Restored. Sun Sentinel.

Tate, K. (2003). Black faces in the mirror: African Americans and their representatives in the US Congress. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

The Sentencing Project. (2010). Felony Disenfranchisement. Retrieved January 3, 2014, from The Sentencing Project: http://www.sentencingproject.org/map/map.cfm#map

The Sentencing Project. (2014). Felony Disenfranchisement. Retrieved February 1, 2015, from The Sentencing Project: http://www.sentencingproject.org/template/page.cfm?id=133

Uggen, C., & Manza, J. (2002). Democratic contraction? Political consequences of felon disenfranchisement in the United States. American Sociological, pp. 777-803.

Uggen, C., Shannon, S., & Manza, J. (2012). State-level estimates of felon disenfranchisement in the United States, 2010. Washington: The Sentencing Project.

Wacquant, L. (2009). Punishing the poor: the neoliberal government of social insecurity. Durham: Duke University Press.CrossRef

Weaver, V., & Lerman, A. (2010). Political Consequences of the Careral State. American Political Science Review, 1-17.

Western, B., & Wildeman, C. (2009). The Black family and mass incarceration. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 621(1), 221–242.CrossRef

Wheelock, D. (2005). Collateral Consequences and Racial Inequality. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 82-90.

Wilson, W. J. (2012). The declining significance of race: Blacks and changing American institutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRef

Woodward, C. V. (2001). The strange career of Jim Crow. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Title: Felon Disenfranchisement Laws and the Feedback Loop of Political Exclusion: the Case of Florida
Authors: Anthony Jamal Phillips
Natalie Deckard
Publication date: 28-09-2015
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Journal of African American Studies / Issue 1/2016
Print ISSN: 1559-1646
Electronic ISSN: 1936-4741
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-015-9314-0

Springer Professional

Abstract

Please log in to get access to your license.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Other articles of this Issue 1/2016

Zachary Reid’s Transoceanic Performance of White Gentility in Sea of Poppies

From Tragic Mulatta to Grotesque Racial Horror: Epic/Exceptionalism and Larsen’s Quicksand

Erratum to: The Harlan Renaissance: Colorblindness and White Domination in Justice John Marshall Harlan’s Dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson

Uncovering Subversion in Phillis Wheatley’s Signature Poem: “On being brought from AFRICA to AMERICA”

School Choice and Afrocentric Charter Schools: a Review and Critique of Evaluation Outcomes

The Legacy of Romanticism: the Pear Tree and Janie Crawford in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God