STOP STALLING - JUSTICE DUE EX-FELONS

It's as old as Jim Crow and as unfair as the law that bore that name.
Florida's 137-year-old clemency system of denying people the right to
vote after they've completed their prison sentences and paid their
debt to society carries a lot of racial baggage.

The last time Florida voters considered lifting the ban on felons'
civil rights was 1968, when Old South pols tried to hold back federal
civil-rights reforms any way they could. Poor, black men are
disproportionately represented in our penal system, which might
explain the 1968 vote.

The Florida of 1968 was a very different place than the diverse
Florida of today. Yet Gov. Jeb Bush, who's been a visionary in helping
minorities succeed in education, acts like a bully-boy sheriff on the
clemency issue.

By making people wait, often for years, to get a clemency hearing
before the governor and state Cabinet, Florida contributes to a cycle
of hopeless criminality. Without getting one's civil rights restored,
former prisoners can't even get a state license to earn a living as a
barber.

Recently the governor and Cabinet streamlined the clemency system,
after The Miami Herald uncovered gross inadequacies and delays. The
governor, himself, pointed out then that there were 4,000 cases
waiting a hearing, but that only about 200 get heard in a year's time.

The new changes will, among other things, allow those convicted of
nonviolent crimes to apply for clemency without the need of a board
hearing -- if they have been clean for five years after getting out of
prison. "The new policy reflects the recognition that if you have paid
your debt to society and you believe in forgiveness, then there ought
to be a more compassionate approach," Attorney General Charlie Crist,
who sits on the four-man Clemency Board, said last month.

But why require any wait?

You would think compassionate conservatives in Tallahassee, having
succeeded in reducing crime rates with "three strikes you're out" life
sentences and laws that require inmates to serve 85 percent of their
sentences behind bars, would see the value of tossing out the old
clemency system.

Isn't it time to move into the 21st century? Florida's among only
seven states in the nation still obstructing ex-felons' civil rights.

At least two prominent Republicans believe Florida should join the 43
states that automatically restore civil rights once felons have done
their time. Sen. Stephen Wise, chairman of the criminal-justice
committee, and Senate Majority Leader Alex Villalobos, a former
prosecutor, would like the Legislature to put the issue before voters
if Bush won't budge any other way.

It just seems like such a waste of good will for Bush to not wipe the
slate clean -- particularly after last year's botched-up "potential
felons" fiasco. It's no wonder so many black voters don't trust the
administration.

Bush and the Clemency Board could get rid of any waiting list by
simply making the voting-restoration policy "automatic" once a felon
leaves prison. That's what former Gov. Reubin Askew did.

Back when sentencing laws were lax and prisons had a revolving door,
maybe, maybe, one could argue that those leaving the slammer should
have to jump through more hoops to get their civil rights restored.
But today sentences are tough, prisoners are doing the time, and the
vast majority of them are staying out of trouble.

About three of every four felons out of prison haven't been back
within three years of getting out, Florida's own Corrections
Department statistics show.

Those on the front lines realize the rehabilitative value of restoring
rights automatically. The American Correctional Association, the
world's largest group of correctional workers and others associated
with prisons, "advocates for the restoration of voting rights upon
completion of the offender's sentence, including community
supervision."

The ACA's voting-rights resolution points out that barring people from
voting has absolutely no rehabilitative value. "Disenfranchisement
laws work against the successful re-entry of offenders as responsible,
productive citizens into the community," the ACA states.

It's time, governor. It's 137 years past time.