Caption : Tens of thousands of California citizens celebrated earlier this month when the Scott v. Bowen finally came to a close, allowing 60,000 formerly incarcerated people to vote

Caption : Tens of thousands of California citizens celebrated earlier this month when the Scott v. Bowen finally came to a close, allowing 60,000 formerly incarcerated people to vote

Tens of thousands of California citizens celebrated earlier this month when the Scott v. Bowen case finally came to a close, allowing 60,000 formerly incarcerated people to vote. The settlement grants previously incarcerated citizens who have completed parole and are living within their communities, but remain under criminal justice supervision, the right to vote.

The history of the case dates back to 2011 when former California Secretary of State Debra Bowen enacted a policy under the Public Safety Realignment Act that stripped voting and voter registration rights from people convicted of felonies facing community-level supervision programs under the state’s criminal justice realignment law.

The case was then taken to the Alameda County Superior Court in 2014, where groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union of California, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, and Legal Services for Prisoners with Children argued that Bowen was disenfranchising voters. Under the California Constitution, people imprisoned or on parole for a felony are unable to vote. The plaintiff’s argued that community-level supervision does not fall into either of those categories, and thus that people under community-level supervision should be able to exercise their right to vote. An Alameda County Superior Court judge ruled in the plaintiff’s favor, expanding voting rights to people under community-level supervision, in May 2014. Voting rights advocates, however, still worried because the decision was subject to appeal.

Advocates are no longer worried. As Legal Services for Prisoners with Children wrote: “California Secretary of State Alex Padilla and LSPC Executive Director Dorsey Nunn announced that the Secretary of State would no longer deny voting rights to Californians serving post-release community supervision and mandatory supervision—meaning that 60,000 more formerly incarcerated people can vote in California” (hyperlinks original).

This case marks a victory for voting rights activists around the nation and an important step towards recasting how society views formerly incarcerated people as they re-enter civilian life.

“Civic engagement and participation in the election process can be an important factor helping former offenders reintegrate into civil society,” Secretary of State Padilla said in his remarks on the settlement as he championed the milestone for California voters and celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Acts.

Padilla continued: “If we are serious about slowing the revolving door at our jails and prisons, and serious about reducing recidivism, we need to engage—not shun—former-offenders. Voting is a key part of that engagement; it is part of a process of becoming vested and having a stake in the community.”