By Nancy Price
LWVSTL was recently invited to serve on a panel of speakers at The SoulFisher Ministries' “Successful Second Chances” event. The featured speaker was Mallory Rusch, who is the Executive Director of Empower MO. Mallory gave an excellent slideshow on inequities in the justice system, many of which are racially biased. What was clear was that interacting with our justice system impacts a person’s life in many faceted, long-term and significant ways. The previously incarcerated people who attended were very resilient and determined problem-solvers. They were navigating a large number of hurdles, which are often entangled, to recreate a life after release.
The panel consisted of the Founder and CEO of SoulFisher Ministries Shawntelle Fisher, LWVSTL League Member Nancy Price, and people from Housing and the Community Colleges. I shared information about voting after interaction with the justice system---getting one’s vote back, voting while in pretrial detention and the ability to vote with a Suspended Imposition of Sentence (SIS) judgement. I also stated that the conditions to regain their vote were state laws, not federal, which means that the voters of Missouri can change them. Members of LWV are working to pass legislation that will allow people to regain their voting rights on release from incarceration and will no longer be required to complete their probation and/or parole prior to being able to vote.
A person sitting next to me sent a photo of the LWV trifold to her relative while the event was going on. I also suggested she send the QR code, which goes to our website. Her relative was extremely excited that they can register and vote. This is another way we can get people registered---by texting our QR! LWVSTL can also collaborate with some of the other programs which SoulFisher Ministries has, including K-8 afterschool care for which they sometimes have programs for the adults. We may be able to do Voter Registration at such an event. I hope we can develop a partnership with SoulFisher Ministries which will help us both share information and increase our membership.
