Ex-convicts get new chance at rights

Those convicted of a felony must petition to have their rights, such as voting, restored. A new program helps them navigate the bureaucracy.

By PAMELA GRINER LEAVY

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 19, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- Tonderick Jones wants to vote again.

Jones, who has twice served time for drug offenses, gathered with about 20 other men and women at a workshop last week to learn how to regain his civil rights. A felony conviction, whether for drug possession, shoplifting, writing bad checks, arson or any other charge means the convicted person loses civil rights. Those rights are not automatically restored when a prison sentence is completed. Citizens with two or more felony convictions must petition the state.

Drug-free and sober for three years, Jones is a supervisor in a food service company and is active in New Life Fellowship Christian Church.

"With the help of God, I'm trying to get my life back together," said Jones, who is 39. "I'm trying to tie up loose ends, and restoration of rights is important."

In March, the African-American Voter Research Education Committee and the League of Women Voters of the St. Petersburg area began holding free "Restore Voting Rights" workshops at Enoch Davis Center, 1111 18th Ave. S, on the second Monday of each month.

AAVREC was founded in 1998 to register voters and provide information about candidates and issues to the community. During a voter registration drive that year, organizers say they found many people, especially men, who told them they couldn't vote because they were felons.

"I became concerned about this and saw an article in the Miami Times, an African-American newspaper, about a rights restoration program," said AAVREC president Vyrle Davis, who retired as an area superintendent for Pinellas schools in 1995.

"I wrote for the Miami program and proposed to AAVREC over a year ago that we start working on it. Then the League of Women Voters said this was something they would like to do, and we formed a partnership."

"To be able to get things accomplished, you have to be able to play within the system," said Adele Bongiovanni, League of Women Voters voter service chairwoman.

"And in this system you vote. You elect legislators to get things done. It's working through the system. That's the way this country was set up. I'm really excited about this program."

Pinellas-Pasco Public Defender Bob Dillinger, who advocates the civil rights restoration program, has seen statistics showing that as many as 30 percent of minority populations in the South may be without voting rights.

"Disenfranchising large groups of people when so few people vote anyway certainly concentrates power in so few hands, and that's not supposed to be the democratic way," said Dillinger, who addressed the league on Saturday at the organization's annual meeting.

"It's frustrating for people who have paid their debt and overcome their problems to keep getting kicked in the face."

At the workshop, attendees are counseled one-on-one and in private by league and AAVREC volunteers. All information received is confidential.

Those seeking restoration of civil rights are asked a series of questions: Have they paid all fees associated with their conviction? Has required restitution been made to victims? Can they obtain letters of reference from pastors, employers, community members? Have they completed the probation, parole and community service requirements of their sentence?

AAVREC and league members assist those who apply in filling out applications and obtaining their records from the Clerk of the Circuit Court. The civil rights application then starts winding its way through the state bureaucracy.

The information is first forwarded to the Office of Executive Clemency in Tallahassee. After review, the state then sends the case to the parole commission regional office in Tampa for investigation. The final say rests with the governor.

The process can take as little as 90 days or more than a year, depending on the applicant's criminal history, according to state parole officials. The St. Petersburg voting rights program is only in its second month. Therefore, no applicants have had their voting rights restored yet.

Jones wants to get on with a life once full of promise. He spent grades four through 11 at Canterbury School of Florida on a college preparation scholarship. In his senior year he transferred to Lakewood High School to graduate with neighborhood friends. In the fall of 1979, he was admitted to the University of Florida, as a pre-law student majoring in political science. In his junior year he discovered drugs and alcohol.

Jones first went to prison in 1990, convicted of cocaine possession. He spent almost two years in a cell at the Lawtey Correctional Institute near Ocala. His civil rights were restored after his release.

Back home in St. Petersburg, Jones found a job selling hair products but fell back again into illegal drugs. In 1996 he was convicted of his second felony for cocaine possession. This time he served three months of a one-year sentence in Pinellas County Jail. A two-time felon, his rights were withheld.

Now Jones is desperate not for drugs but to vote. He remembers what it was like when his great-grandmother, not allowed to vote for most of her life because of segregation, was able to go to the polls in the tumultuous 1960s.

"I understand the importance of one vote and low voter turnout," Jones said. "Even though most people think their vote is not important, I understand in numbers things can be done.

"My great-grandmother was proud to walk to vote in the 1960s. I remember being 5 or 6 and walking with her to vote. She was a proud woman."

If you go

The Restore Voting Rights Workshop is from 6-8 p.m. the second Monday of each month at the Enoch Davis Center, 1111 18th Ave. S, St. Petersburg. Call 867-2466.

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