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Florida’s Dilemma: , Civics, and Marshall DeRosa , FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY

he efficacy of the tough on crime reform; 75 percent agree or strongly agree mantra of American politics may that the cost of incarceration is too high; 65 Thave reached its apex in Florida percent agree or strongly agree that there are politics. A September 2016 poll conducted too many nonviolent offenders in ; by The Institute and the and 74 percent favor a greater focus on Charles Koch Institute revealed that 72 rehabilitation.1 percent of Floridians agree or strongly The public’s frustration is agree that there should be criminal understandable. The prison population in

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Florida has increased by 1,048 percent from approximately $21,000 per inmate. With 1970 to 2014, while the total population over 101,000 inmates, the total cost exceeds has increased 193 percent. Florida has $2.4 billion per year. These costs do not the third largest prison population in the include tax-funded expenditures to families country, trailing California and Texas. placed into due to inmates’ lost Approximately 0.50 percent of Florida’s incomes and the lost economic output from population is incarcerated. Much of this non-employed inmates. Consequently, growth is attributable to voters’ earlier the taxpayer is supporting the inmates demands that policymakers be “tough on in a variety of ways difficult to quantify crime,” which at the and these costs should time meant locking up not be dismissed as criminals and giving inconsequential. them longer sentences. The prison With over 70 The assumption was that population in Florida percent of Floridians this approach provided has increased by agreeing that the cost the socially beneficial 1,048 percent from of incarceration is too outcome of less crime. high, reforming the That assumption1970 to 2014, while system is losing its appeal. the total population will continue to gain Legislators ought to heed has increased 193 momentum. One way this trend, otherwise the percent. to alter the financial trajectory for Florida’s burden to the taxpayer is prison population will to reduce incarceration. increasingly stoke the ire To do so will require of the public and evoke initiatives to amend adjustments to the criminal code, the Florida Constitution, taking the matter sentencing guidelines, and the revolving out of legislative hands. door. Viewed through the lens of political efficiency, the burgeoning prison population Recidivism is a significant contributing scores high. Politicians, bureaucrats, and factor to the burgeoning Florida prison various other criminal justice-oriented population. interest groups collectively benefit. Florida TaxWatch reports that “statistics However, viewed through the lens of public show that there is a 27.6 percent chance interest economic efficiency, the score is that a released inmate will return to prison low. In other words, the costs to be tough on (known as “recidivating” or “recidivism”) crime have reached the tipping point where within three years of release, irrespective the costs outweigh the benefits. Consider of the crime that initially landed them in the following: prison. Additionally, nearly 50 percent Incarceration has both a direct and of new admissions to prison will have indirect cost to Florida’s taxpayers. The previously served time.”2 average direct cost to the taxpayer is The Florida Department of

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is well aware of this problem. In 2009 the a high school education have deteriorated department issued its strategic plan to as the prison population has grown, reduce recidivism.3 The plan has 32 specific and themselves are drawn recommendations. These recommendations overwhelmingly from the least educated. notwithstanding, the revolving door of State prisoners average just a 10th grade recidivism, although slowing from 33 education, and about 70 percent have no percent in 2005 to 26 percent in 2009, high school diploma.”4 A reliable indicator continues to turn. This may be due to a of an inmate’s socio-economic background glaring omission in the strategic plan. is educational level, and a reliable indicator Inmates are returned to civil society with the of potential incarceration is a person’s same, if not worsened, attitudes about civil socio-economic status. society. These attitudes can be summarily stated as follows: the American political In other words, education is quite and economic systems are oppressive. possibly the most important component In a peculiar way this is true. Many of Florida’s prisoners’ dilemma. of the inmates have been victimized by This is especially true regarding civics decades of governmental policies that have education. It’s not that civics education is subjected them to inadequate educational absent in public schools; the problem is the opportunities, dependency type of civics education. on the welfare state, crime- Through the various agents ridden neighborhoods, and of political socialization, deconstructed families. Education is e.g., schools, media, and The prospect of successful quite possibly the entertainment, the message reentry into civil society most important is that the American are negatively impacted by political order is rotten at its returning released inmates component roots. Examples are legion, to similar social and of Florida’s but the following will economic circumstances prisoners’ suffice as representative: from which they first dilemma. This country’s history entered the criminal justice is written by people who system. In addition, with believe God himself granted the additional burden of them, and only them, the being a convicted felon with the same, if unalienable right to that . not worsened, attitudes about the political The Constitution ensured this privilege and economic system, the environment for would only be accessible to a select group reoffending is ripe. of people. Every bit of progress this country The elephant in the room is that “class has made has been toward expanding inequalities in incarceration are reflected access to that dream to millions of people in the very low educational level of those who were previously denied it.5 incarcerated. The legitimate labor market The prospects of successful reentry for opportunities for men with no more than a returning citizen believing such nonsense

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is greatly diminished. If a returning citizen incarceration was their failure to perform reenters civil society convinced that he is a the duties requisite to the functioning victim of an unjust political order designed of a free society. Civics education begins to oppress him, despair rather than optimism the process of changing the narrative and would be the norm. In other words, why inmates’ perceptions that they are victims play by the rules of civil society if those of the system and places responsibility rules are rigged against your success? Even where it belongs, on the individual. They if the recidivism rate could be substantially come to understand that society was the reduced, the unemployed released felon victim of their , rather than they will still be a burden to the taxpayer as he being society’s victims. This realization is a becomes dependent upon the welfare state major step towards successful reentry into and/or resorts to additional crime. Hence, a civil society as responsible and productive vicious cycle of dependency, whether in or citizens. out of prison, continues unabated. Access to civics education has been Rather than detach themselves from the transformative for the inmates receiving system of failed government policies that it. The evidence of this transformation is contributed to their incarceration, they turn documented in the essays each student is to that system for support. Consequently, a required to write. The topic of the essays substantial number of convicted felons, in is “What It Means to Be an American.” or out of prison, continue to be tax burdens. Writing the essays requires some serious Is there a way to effectively address this introspection, application of lessons learned dilemma? The answer to that question is and the realization that rights and duties are emphatically yes. However, it is a long road, integrally linked. and one that starts with an effective civics The successful reintegration of civically- education program within prison walls. A minded returning citizens into civil society civics education program, based on facts should be a priority of policymakers and not fiction, should be available for all of as a first step towards the reduction of the 100,000 plus Florida inmates, including recidivism. Towards that end, inmates that those with life sentences. successfully complete the civics education As director of the Inmate Civics program should be welcomed back into Education Enhancement Project (ICEEP), civil society as properly recognized citizens. funded by the Charles Koch Foundation The welcome mat could be the immediate in partnership with Florida Atlantic restoration of their voting rights upon University, The James Madison Institute, completion of their sentences. and GEO, Inc., I have had the opportunity Article VI, section 4, of the Florida to introduce to inmate students that as Constitution disqualifies any person Americans they had and have a unique convicted of a to vote or hold office opportunity in human history to succeed. until that fundamental civil right is restored That as Americans they have certain through a bureaucratic (and extremely rights and duties, with the emphasis on cumbersome) process. This is commonly the latter. And that the primary cause of referred to as felony disenfranchisement.

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There are approximately two million • Subjects them to a government not Floridians not eligible to vote due to this predicated upon their consent. constitutional provision.6 Denying them • Stamps upon them the stigma of this fundamental right reduces them to second-class citizens. After the second-class citizens and confirms in their completion of their sentences, i.e., minds that the political system is oppressive. the deprivation of the fundamental Martin Luther King reiterated an axiomatic right to liberty, their debt to society principle of American politics when he has been paid in full. [This is to be wrote “An unjust law is a code inflicted distinguished from compensation upon a minority which that minority had to victims of their crimes, when no part in enacting or creating because feasible. It is society that denies it did not have the unhampered right to them the restoration of voting rights vote.”7 It’s unreasonable to suspect that upon completion of their sentences, disenfranchised felons would not paint not the victims of their crimes.] with a broad brush as unjust the laws they • Requiring convicted felons to appeal “had no part in enacting.” to the discretion of the Florida I have had the opportunity to gain Commission on Offender Review unique insights into the unreasonableness for the restoration of their voting of felony disenfranchisement from the rights is anathema to the principle perspective of convicted felons. Floridians that inalienable rights are from the would benefit from learning about these Creator, not government grants. insights and hearing from a small sample • It is a form of involuntary servitude, of my inmate students about why felony as substantial portions of their labor disenfranchisement is unreasonable. is required to pay the taxes they are What qualifies these convicted felons to excluded from voting for or against. lecture Floridians? Consider the following: • It places all Floridians on the These students have been engaged in slippery slope of rights violations. an intense curriculum that explores the If two million convicted felons can fundamental principles of the American be denied the fundamental right to political and economic order. vote, then all fundamental rights Nevertheless, Florida’s constitutional are jeopardized by a lackadaisical disenfranchisement de jure and de facto defense of this fundamental right. hampers reintegration into civil society, This is particularly true regarding which in turn increases the probability of the right to private property. recidivism. • It denies them the opportunity to The ICEEP students contend that perform a fundamental duty to be disenfranchisement does the following: engaged in the civic life of their communities. • It violates the fundamental right of • It exposes the failure of Floridians to property through taxation without perform their duty to a substantial representation, the clarion call of number of their fellow citizens, the the American Revolution. duty to provide the latter a voice in

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the electoral process. better understanding that individual • It places them in a hostile posture responsibility within the context of a free towards their fellow citizens, society is the path to success. because the latter are not fulfilling Felony disenfranchisement could their duty to respect a fundamental be ended within a few short years either right of citizenship. through the upcoming renewal of the Voting Rights Act8 or amending the Florida Floridians need to ask themselves if Constitution. There is broad and deep felony disenfranchisement is compatible bipartisan support for reform. The question with the Declaration of Independence’s is not “if” but “how” that reform will take demand that government be based upon shape. the consent of the governed. In the words The concern that felony of , disenfranchisement would shift Florida “We hold these truths to be self- politically should be the last thing evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. . .” ICEEP students maintain that it is considered in any discussion of this not. However, they also maintain that as policy reform. The common theory is that convicted felons the restoration of voting restoring the rights of felons will result rights should have conditions attached. For in more votes for Democrat candidates. example, it should be statutorily mandated According to a Republican and Heritage that while serving their sentences they Foundation fellow, Dr. Darryl Paulson, the should be provided opportunities to learn issue “is 98 percent due to racial politics . . . about their rights and duties as Americans. Dems want to restore the felon vote because They, in short, should be prepared for they think they will benefit; Republicans successful reentry into civil society by want to restrict felon voting because they

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believe they will be harmed.”9 prepare convicted felons for the restoration That theory has little basis in practical of their civil rights, most especially the right application. Further, if conservatives to vote. were to rally around a practical reform- 1. See http://www.jamesmadison.org/publications/detail/ minded approach that looked to restore strong-majority-of-floridians-want-criminal-justice- rights to those who have completed civics reform. 2. http://floridataxwatch.org/resources/pdf/ programming while incarcerated, the results Reentry2013FINAL.pdf would be to expose thousands of new voters 3. [http://www.dc.state.fl.us/orginfo/ FinalRecidivismReductionPlan.pdf] to the very constitutional principles which 4. Incarceration & social inequality, Bruce Western & Becky conservatives hold dear. Pettit (Dædalus, Summer 2010), https://www.amacad.org/ content/publications/pubContent.aspx?d=808 Politics, like nature, abhors a vacuum. 5. The Huffington Post, November 9, 2016; see http://www. Inmates do learn in prison, and in many huffingtonpost.com/steve-iannelli/we-must-continue-to- fight_b_12879312.html. instances are radicalized. Will they learn, 6. According to the Sentencing Project, approximately 75% i.e., be radicalized, about the value of life, of Floridians disenfranchised are white and 25% black [see “State-Level Estimates of Felon Disenfranchisement liberty, and property within the context of in the ”, 2010 Christopher Uggen and Sarah the rule of law, or learn how to be better Shannon, University of Minnesota Jeff Manza, New York University July 2012; file:///C:/Users/Marshall/Downloads/ criminals thereby continuing to be ongoing State-Level-Estimates-of-Felon-Disenfranchisement-in- burdens to their fellow tax-paying citizens? the-United-States-2010.pdf. 7. Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1963; file:///C:/Users/ Establishing a framework for ending Marshall/Desktop/Letter_Birmingham_Jail.pdf. felon disenfranchisement via successful 8. In Johnson v. Bush [405 F.3d 1214 (11th Cir. 2005)] upheld the constitutionality of Florida’s felony disenfranchisement, completion of civics education, properly but also stated that a clear statement in an amended Voting understood, would be an important step Rights Act would definitively put an end to it. 9. Miami Herald, AUGUST 12, 2016, http://www. towards addressing Florida’s prisoner miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/election/ dilemma. The Florida legislature should article95076927.html. be proactive on this issue and adequately

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