Re: Colorado - 6,000 felons on voter lists

[Ralph Shnelvar <ralphs@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Sunny:

On Tue, 12 Oct 2004 14:25:57 EDT, you wrote:

>Did you see my last email, Evan?
>
>I obviously want to know who Donetta is barring from voting, now, because it 
>is hard to believe that there are 6,000 felons in prison or on parole

6000 people on parole does not seem outrageous at all.  In fact, it seems a
quite low.

There are (http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/pjim03.pdf) 19,085 inmates
in Colorado.  I presume that most of them are felons.

Since about half are released every year and the length of parole is, what?,
an average of 3 years?  (it's amazing the kind of statistics you pick up
when you run for high office.)

I _think_ the following is current
- - - -
Felonies: There a six class of felonies classified, with the following
presumptive penalties:

Class 1 - Life imprisonment or death
Class 2 - Eight to twenty-four year imprisonment and five years parole
Class 3 - Four to twelve years imprisonment and five years parole
Class 4 - Two to six years imprisonment and three years parole
Class 5 - One to three years imprisonment and two years parole
Class 6 - One year to eighteen months imprisonment and one year parole.
- - - -

Thus my best guess on the number of ineligible felons is about 30,000 and
not 7,000.

>who are 
>eligible for exclusion.  Persons convicted of felonies in the past, who have 
>served their time, have the franchise RESTORED to them, in other words, 
>although they generally are not informed of this fact.

Yeah, I saw a _lot_ of this when I was running for governor.  Former felons
were really surprised that they could vote.  Most simply did not believe me.

>
>It steams me, because felony convictions are very easy to come by since the 
>corporate-government cabal realized that they could turn incarceration into a 
>profit-making business, and stepped up the "war on drugs" and enhanced 
>sentencing for minor drug offenses, to provide a steady supply of convicted felons for 
>this industry.

There are times, Alison, when I love you.  This is one of those times.

>
>Sunny

Last, Sunny, Evan is on our side on this.  Evan's politics are, as best as I
can determine, considerably more progressive than yours.

It's amazing to me how you progressives can get so much of the social policy
right and so much of the economics wrong.

But, still, I love you guys.

Ralph