Ryan Adam Radcliff
Thirteen years in jail, he can vote again.
Page 7B
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For many Americans, the privilege of voter rights and citizenship are ideas seldom thought about. People take for granted being able to vote in all the different elections and polls up for debate in the states, while a majority of the population that can vote fails to even register. There are a few individuals who do not that this civil service for granted. Those individuals are former criminals who have lost their civil rights and citizenship.
I guess it is hard to dispute how important something like civil rights are considering most of us have and disregard them. The article talks about a man who was sent to jail for nearly half a century on drug charges only to have his citizenship removed even after his release. Mark Heidrich, aFlorida America
It is not that easy to have your rights reinstated either. There is a large backlog of cases of individuals, all similar to Heidrich that are fighting, waiting, and struggling to become full-fledged American citizens again. The Parole Commission is struggling to handle all these cases as they are extremely undermanned with the growing number of ex-offenders rising all the time. The agency is asking for help. They have asked the Legislature for some extra money so they can hire more workers to handle these cases.
I feel that the Legislature should approve of this extra money to allow more jobs to open up. Sure it would only be a handful of jobs offered, but it will also help with the process to re-establish citizenship for all the ex-offenders. It will speed up the process which will enable more people who have paid for their crimes ten-fold to jump back into society and contribute like everyone else. We could use all the working, legal citizens we can get. It is by no means a quick fix for economy, but to those who have lost something like that, those rights are viewed as something special, and they will make this best of it.
Heidrich is just one example of someone who committed a crime ages ago and up until recently, was still paying for it. It is almost like being free, but with strict limitations on those freedoms. Not everyone has these rights we so easily take for granted. They say that if you do the crime, you will pay with time, and that seems to be true in most cases. Being able to vote and being a full-fledged citizen are rights granted by the government. It just goes to show that you truly do not know what you have, or what something, even something so easily overlooked, means to you until you lose it.
I guess it is hard to dispute how important something like civil rights are considering most of us have and disregard them. The article talks about a man who was sent to jail for nearly half a century on drug charges only to have his citizenship removed even after his release. Mark Heidrich, a
It is not that easy to have your rights reinstated either. There is a large backlog of cases of individuals, all similar to Heidrich that are fighting, waiting, and struggling to become full-fledged American citizens again. The Parole Commission is struggling to handle all these cases as they are extremely undermanned with the growing number of ex-offenders rising all the time. The agency is asking for help. They have asked the Legislature for some extra money so they can hire more workers to handle these cases.
I feel that the Legislature should approve of this extra money to allow more jobs to open up. Sure it would only be a handful of jobs offered, but it will also help with the process to re-establish citizenship for all the ex-offenders. It will speed up the process which will enable more people who have paid for their crimes ten-fold to jump back into society and contribute like everyone else. We could use all the working, legal citizens we can get. It is by no means a quick fix for economy, but to those who have lost something like that, those rights are viewed as something special, and they will make this best of it.
Heidrich is just one example of someone who committed a crime ages ago and up until recently, was still paying for it. It is almost like being free, but with strict limitations on those freedoms. Not everyone has these rights we so easily take for granted. They say that if you do the crime, you will pay with time, and that seems to be true in most cases. Being able to vote and being a full-fledged citizen are rights granted by the government. It just goes to show that you truly do not know what you have, or what something, even something so easily overlooked, means to you until you lose it.
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