The Suffolk County House of Corrections in Boston is walled off from the world of primary elections. Political candidates don’t give it a thought. Until this year, that is. A recent forum among all six of the candidates for Suffolk County district attorney took place in the large institutional room of the jail, where an audience of inmates asked the questions.
It makes perfect sense to include incarcerated people in the conversation about improving the criminal justice system. Prisoners quizzed the candidates on flexibility in drug sentencing, holding police accountable for their roles in arrests, rehabilitation programs inside prisons and other issues critical to the position these candidates are seeking.
A district attorney’s role carries wide discretion with regard to deciding whether to prosecute, what charges to file and whether to permit a plea agreement. These particular candidates all had progressive perspectives and agreed on most of the issues. Police officers need to be held accountable, the bail system needs to be reformed, people shouldn’t be deported for non-violent crimes.
The most interesting topic in the discussion, however, was the relationship between the candidates’ thoughts about the district attorney’s role, and the candidates’ experiences with family members and friends who had been treated unfairly in the criminal justice system. One candidate had been arrested. All had deeply personal roots to their interest in running for DA.
Rachael Rollins, one of the candidates, has three siblings who have been in prison. She put it this way. “I look at you as possibly being my sister, my brother, my neighbor, people I go to church with,” she said (AP report, Alanna Durkin Richer, 6.27.18).
That is the voice of someone who understands equality. It’s not that we are all the same in all ways. One is rich; one is poor. One is highly educated; one dropped out of school. One is a working single parent; one is a stay at home mother or father. One is a prosecutor; one is a criminal. We are not the same.
No matter the differences, though, we remain equals. Appearances, education, job titles, life stories: in the end, those are superficial. We are all siblings in the human family. We all need to be treated with fairness and respect. We all have a powerful sense of dignity and worth, no matter what our personal circumstances may be. We all have the right to the same resources, the same protections under the law and the same opportunities.
This forum was not just an empty exercise in civics for the prisoners. For prisoners, participating in the political process keeps them connected to the community. Talking about how to become “productive members of society” is meaningless, whereas helping them to see themselves as contributing members of the community, connected to it even behind bars, affirms their existing relationship with the community.
Although Maine and Vermont are the only two states that preserve the right to vote for prisoners, many other states are considering bills to stop the disenfranchisement of felons. Like Massachusetts, most states do not allow people to vote if they are in prison or on parole. Convicted felons can vote once they have completed their sentences.
Those laws may change under progressive leadership.
In the meantime, prisoners do have access to information about political campaigns while they are in prison. They watch the news and have access to internet time and study time. In the same way some members of the general population become riveted by political issues, some prisoners develop a lifelong interest in politics. Some use their time in jail to prepare themselves for a career in politics: working for a voter registration organization, serving on community action committees, joining a civil rights watchdog group, becoming a lawyer, running for office.
Advocates for reform of our criminal justice system want the Suffolk County House of Corrections forum to inspire other forums across the country. People who are behind bars need to be included in discussions of civic issues. Letting inmates have a voice is rehabilitative. All of us need to have a voice in this democracy. All of us, prisoners too, need to vote in every singe election – from town finance committees and school boards, to state representatives to our members of Congress.
