Press Advisory: Community Forum on the Movement to Restore Voting Rights to People on Parole, on Probation, and in Prison

WHEN: Thursday, April 5 at 7:00 PM

WHERE: Unitarian Universalist Church of Cherry Hill, located at 401 N. Kings Highway in Cherry Hill

On Thursday, April 5, the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice (Institute) and its partners will host a community forum at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Cherry Hill, on the growing movement to restore voting rights to people in prison, on parole, and on probation for a felony.

The event will feature speakers including:

• Institute President and CEO Ryan Haygood
• Judge Karen Williams, U.S. Magistrate Judge for the District of New Jersey
• Patricia McKernan, Chief Operating Officer of Volunteers of America Delaware Valley and President of the Reentry Coalition of New Jersey
• Ronald Pierce, a Rutgers student and Institute intern who is currently denied the right to vote

“As a result of racial disparities throughout the criminal justice system, half of those denied the right to vote are Black, even though Black people make up only 15 percent of the state’s total population,” said Ryan P. Haygood, Institute President and CEO. “To erase this moral stain on our democracy, New Jersey must restore the right to vote to people on probation, on parole, and in prison.”

Thursday’s discussion in Cherry Hill follows the introduction of a bill earlier this year, sponsored by Senator Ronald Rice, Senator Sandra Cunningham, Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter, and Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker, that would restore voting rights to people on parole, on probation, and in prison. New Jersey currently denies the right to vote to more than 94,000 people with criminal convictions—more than the total population of Trenton, the state’s capital.

“All citizens deserve the right to vote,” said Rohn Hein, Co-Chair of UU Faith Action NJ Criminal Justice Task Force, a co-sponsor of Thursday’s event. “People who have been incarcerated should not be deprived the fundamental right of participation in our democracy. Our system demands that all people are represented and be allowed to decide who our elected officials are. Voting is a basic freedom for which patriots for hundreds of years have given their lives.”

The event is sponsored by: the ACLU of New Jersey, the Cherry Hill African American Civic Association, the League of Women Voters of New Jersey, the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, NAACP New Jersey State Conference, the Reentry Coalition of New Jersey, Rutgers Law School, the Rutgers Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, Unitarian Universalist Church of Cherry Hill, UU Faith Action NJ Criminal Justice Task Force, and Volunteers of America Delaware Valley.

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