In 1992, Nasir Blackwell was desperate. He had been convicted of murder and sentenced to be executed. While incarcerated in Pontiac Correctional Center, he visited the law library—a six-by-nine-foot cell, most of its books published in the 50s—and picked up a volume on homicide. “I began studying law. I was studying history, and so I began studying the history of jurisprudence. I could not believe how law was man-made,” he says. “It just became a passion. It helped me litigate on behalf of people that were incarcerated. I was empowering voices—teaching people how to study law, [helping] if they needed a transfer.”
Voting rights laws vary widely among states. In Maine and Vermont, felons can cast a ballot while imprisoned, while a dozen other states require the formerly incarcerated to jump through administrative hurdles—such as a governor’s pardon or petition to a court—before they can vote again. In Delaware, anyone convicted of certain crimes, including murder and bribery, is permanently disenfranchised.
Importantly, the course would be taught mainly by other prisoners, who will have been trained by nonpartisan civics organizations. Gandhi notes that the idea for peer education was suggested by people with a criminal record who had input in writing the bill; they argued that it would make for less “preachy” classes. “Symbolically, it says a lot—it sends the message that civic engagement does not die [in prison],” says Rivers.
