Parolee feels ‘Emancipated’ as California votes ‘Yes’ on Prop. 17, allow right to vote

Shone Holmes didn’t get to vote in last week’s history-making election because she is on parole. She was devastated.

But now she’s thrilled that Californians decided that people in her situation can cast a ballot in the future.

Nearly 60% of California voters supported Proposition 17 and decided to restore voting rights to people with felony records immediately after they complete their prison term, despite being on parole. The changes are expected to extend voting rights to 50,000 people on parole.

“I’m so excited,” said Holmes, a life coach at the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, a nonprofit that works with incarcerated people and those released after serving their sentence. “This is liberating for me, especially as a Black woman, because [for years] Black people weren’t able to vote.”

“I am very stoked about [Proposition 17] because now I am able to have the same liberties [to vote] as each individual in our country,” said Holmes.

The passage of Proposition 17 means nearly an additional 3,000 people currently on parole in Sacramento will be eligible to vote. Though only a fraction of the electorate, it could mean the difference in a close race and could have significant meaning in the region’s underserved communities of color that are home to a disproportionate number of people on parole.

Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, pushed to have the proposition added to the ballot, calling it a necessary step to expand voting access. “This is such a good step for democracy and public safety,” he said in a statement on Twitter when it became clear the measure would win support statewide.

California now joins at least 16 states where people regain the right to vote immediately after being released from state prison.

Proposition 17 marked the latest in a series of criminal justice changes that have stood in stark contrast to decisions made decades ago. California voters approved the so-called Three Strikes Law in 1994 that required longer prison sentences for certain repeat offenders and grew the state’s prison population for decades.

After a push to build more prisons and a wave of lawsuits over unconstitutional conditions, lawmakers at the direction of then-Gov. Jerry Brown in 2011 passed a series of reforms that shifted some offenders to county jails. They called the package realignment diverting thousands of offenders from prisons to jails and marking a new chapter in the state’s approach to justice.

Then came the ballot measures.

Voters passed Proposition 47 in 2014, downgrading an array of drug and property crimes to misdemeanors. Two years later, voters passed Proposition 57, expanding parole eligibility and further easing pressures inside the prisons.

Voters sent a resounding message last week when they shot down Proposition 20, which would have rolled back some of those changes.

Critics, including some in the California Republican Party, panned Proposition 17 by saying people on parole shouldn’t be eligible to vote until they completed parole. State Sen. Jim Nielsen, R-Tehama, previously called it “criminal injustice” and said felons on parole should remain “subject to consequences for their behavior.”

Berry Accius, a Sacramento community activist and founder of Trap-the-Vote, disagreed. He celebrated the positive effects Proposition 17 would have on the Black community, both by extending the right to vote and the ability for people parole to run for office — as long as they’re registered to vote and haven’t been convicted of perjury or bribery.

“I feel if a person has done their time, they should have the ability to have a say-so and have a right to be able to express themselves by voting for things that affect them,” Accius said after it became clear Proposition 17 would pass. “If you’ve served the time, why do they have to continue serving time? It’s hard enough for these felons to get jobs and opportunities.”

Plus, Accius said, some people in jail or prison come out even more educated because they took the time to study and, occasionally, become more politically savvy.

“That,” Accius said, “is a magnificent victory.”