Title: Felony disenfranchisement in America : historical origins, institutional racism, and modern consequences /
Authors: Pettus, Katherine Irene, 1956-
Publisher: State University of New York Press,
Year: 2013
Subjects: Suffrage United States; Prisoners Suffrage United States.; Criminal justice, Administration of United States
Abstract: Overview: Reveals how state felony disenfranchisement laws are undermining American democracy. State felony disenfranchisement laws that date back to Reconstruction fracture the American electorate into "those who are citizens in the fullest sense of the term," in Aristotle's words, and those who, deprived of political voice, still have the status of slaves. The existence of this "invisible constituency" - approximately 5.8 million or 2.5% of the national voting population - who live alongside the "ruling" enfranchised electorate - is one of the scandals of our generation. In this second edition of Felony Disenfranchisement in America, Katherine Irene Pettus draws on philosophy, history, law, and punishment theory to make the compelling argument that state disenfranchisement policies have collective moral and political significance that transcends the personal tragedy of being legally deprived of full citizenship status. Pettus argues that the war on drugs, mass incarceration, and racially unbalanced disenfranchisement rates distort and disfigure the body politic as a whole, and undermine the legitimacy of the domestic and foreign policies promulgated by our elected representatives.
Contents: Citizenship and status honor: premodern origins of the contemporary American practice of felony disenfranchisement -- Felony disenfranchisement and the problem of double citizenship -- Representation, reconstruction, and American Atimia -- Judicial justifications of felony disenfranchisement and the politics of crime and punishment -- The double polity identified.