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Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Felons in public office?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Florida, which routinely leads Georgia in pushing cutting-edge legislation — school vouchers, for example — may be handing activists a prize they’ve been denied in Georgia: automatic restoration of the rights of felons who have completed their sentences to vote, serve on juries, hold public office and hold professional licenses.
A clemency board, made up of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, the attorney general, chief financial officer and agricultural commissioner, may agree this week. Crist supports automatic restoration, if fees and restitution are satisfied, a stipulation the ACLU opposes. Two of the other members of the board would have to agree with Crist before he could sign an executive order implementing the change. Crist’s predecessor, Jeb Bush, opposed automatic restoration, Both are Republicans.
“We’re working very hard to have restoration of civil rights, something that Florida can be proud of,” the governor said. “It’s along the lines of what Abraham Lincoln would support, so I’m working very hard to try to make that happen.”
Some 1 million new voters could be made eligible for the rolls by the decision. Attorney General Bill McCollum thinks the change would be “reckless and irresponsible.” Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson has reservations, too.
To relieve a state backlog of felons who seek individually to have their rights restored, McCollum suggests hiring more Parole Commission employees and having more clemency board meetings. The wait now can be years. More meetings and employees could cut that to a year, he said.
I would oppose the change here. The state should punish behaviors that are harmful to society — and crime certainly is — while rewarding those that are desirable, like marriage. Taking away the right to vote, serve on juries or hold public office, while putting the burden on the wrong-doer to demonstrate rehabilitation, sends the desired message that there are lifetime consequences to criminal conduct.
