POLITICO
How Thousands of American Laws Keep People ‘Imprisoned’ Long After They’re Released
Across the country, people with felony convictions face a daunting web of small obstacles to rebuilding normal lives. What will it take to fix?
Kilroy Watkins photographed Dec. 9, 2020 along Lake Michigan in Chicago, Ill. | Paul Beaty / for Politico
By REUBEN JONATHAN MILLER
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Reuben Jonathan Miller is an assistant professor at the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration. He is the author of the forthcoming Halfway Home: Race, Punishment and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration
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In the run-up to the election in November, there was a pervasive belief that the fate of the nation could hinge on Florida because of its 2018 passage of Amendment 4, which reversed a permanent voting ban for 1.4 million Floridians with felony records. Then, in September, an appellate court ruled that people with felony convictions must pay all their court fines and fees before they are permitted to exercise the franchise.