Bernie Sanders: Even 'Terrible People' Have the Right to Vote

[Uncle Joe]

32. I believe this to be a good read on the issue.

Joseph Jackson was one of the millions of Americans inspired by Barack Obama's 2008 White House bid. A black man in the nation's whitest state, he coordinated voter registration drives and cast his first-ever ballot for the candidate who would become the nation's first African-American president.

And he did it all while incarcerated in a maximum-security prison, serving 19 years for manslaughter.

That's because Jackson, 52, was convicted in Maine, one of just two states that allow felons to vote from behind bars. In the U.S., nearly all convicted felons are disenfranchised during their prison sentences and, often, barred from the ballot for years after release. Sometimes, offenders lose the right to vote for life.

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For Jackson, getting involved in politics behind bars — petitioning lawmakers on prison reform, founding a chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and casting that first ballot — put him on a path for life after prison. Released in 2013, he earned a master's degree and works on behalf of inmates and their families with the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition.

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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/states-rethink-prisoner-voting-rights-incarceration-rates-rise-n850406