Host Margot Adler speaks with Andres Idarraga, a 28-year-old ex-convict who first began thinking about his voting rights while educating himself in prison. He is currently a junior at Brown University in Rhode Island. Under current Rhode Island law, he will not be able to vote until 2037.
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Host Margot Adler discusses crime and criminal voting with author and criminologist Chris Uggen.
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Law professor Spencer Overton debates former American Enterprise Institute expert John Lott on whether or not convicted felons should have the right to vote.
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Spencer Overton
is a law professor at George Washington University. He specializes in voting rights, and authored the book Stealing Democracy: The New Politics of Voter Suppression. Overton served as a commissioner on the Jimmy Carter-James Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform, and is also a member of the boards of Common Cause, Demos, the Center for Responsive Politics, and the People's Community Baptist Church.
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John R. Lott
is the dean’s visiting professor at the State University of New York at Binghamton. He was formerly with the American Enterprise Institute, where he specialized in criminal justice. Lott is the author of "The Bias Against Guns," More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws, and "Are Predatory Commitments Credible: Who Should the Courts Believe?" He is currently completing another book on the importance of reputations in deterring criminals.
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Host Margot Adler speaks with Virginia Congressman Bobby Scott about his state's voting laws.
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Congressman Robert C. Scott
began his seventh term as a member of Congress on January 4, 2005. Rep. Scott serves on the House Judiciary Committee, where he is the lead Democrat on the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security and a member of the Constitution subcommittee.
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Reporter Susan Phillips tells the story of a convicted felon in New York State who has filed suit from his prison cell seeking to grant all prisoners in the state the right to vote.
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Host Margot Adler speaks with Maggie Williams, founder and project director of the Voter Enfranchisement Project.
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Maggie Williams
is the founder and project director of the Bronx Defenders' Voter Enfranchisement Project, which is piloting a nonpartisan role for holistic public defender offices to play in the civic engagement of their clients and communities.
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Host Margot Adler talks to Miriam Shehane, founder of a victim's rights group known as VOCAL, Victims of Crime and Leniency. She started the organization in Montgomery, Alabama after her daughter was murdered.
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