Give Florida's ex-felons a reason to stay straight
Palm Beach Post, March 1, 2007

Restoring rights quickly is revisited: Gov. Crist now says he is open to excluding released felons whose crimes were violent.
St. Petersburg Times, March 2, 2007

Giving ex-offenders a chance to make good
Tallahassee Democrat, February 26, 2007

Crist: I'll restore felons' rights
St. Petersburg Times, February 22, 2007

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Governor's Ex-Offender Task Force Final Report to the Governor

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Florida Rights Restoration Coalition Applauds Gov. Crist; Clemency Reform Still Lacks

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday, April 5, 2007

CONTACT:
Muslima Lewis, FRRC, 786.363.2708
Brandon Hensler, ACLU, 786.363.2722

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition applauds Governor Crist and the Board of Executive Clemency on a positive step toward true clemency reform. However, the new rules for executive clemency released today fall short of expectations and short of what is needed. The new rules will still leave hundreds of thousands of ex-offenders who have completed their sentences without immediate and automatic restoration of civil and voting rights.

Today’s announcement is an incremental step toward comprehensive reform, and will have the biggest impact on those who are still in prison or released but still completing terms of their probation and/or paying restitution. Once certain categories of ex-offenders complete all terms of their sentence, they will seemingly have their rights restored virtually automatically.

“This is progress toward the big picture goal of comprehensive civil rights restoration in Florida,” said Marion Bacon White, president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition and the 11th Episcopal District Lay Organization of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. “The Governor’s plans seemed to be more far-reaching than what is actually being presented, so now the energy will need to be focused on the pieces of reform that were not addressed in today’s announcement.”

The vast majority of ex-offenders are the nearly one million citizens who have already been released and are working and trying to raise families in Florida. These disenfranchised citizens receive fewer reprieves under the new rules. The clearest way would have been to include them in the new rules, but the Board can also issue an executive order that would immediately and automatically restore rights to these citizens with the vote of the Governor and two of his cabinet members.

“The fact remains that the new rules are unnecessarily ambiguous and will lead to more confusion and a greater backlog of applications,” said Muslima Lewis, Director of the ACLU of Florida’s Racial Justice and Voting Rights Project, an FRRC member organization. “Furthermore, restitution remains an often insurmountable barrier that prevents ex-offenders that are law-abiding citizens from regaining their fundamental right to vote, and the ability to obtain dozens of occupational licenses.

Take Action Today – Ask Governor Crist to implement immediate, automatic and paperless clemency reform to restore rights to the nearly one million Floridians whose civil rights have been stripped.  Log on to find more information on how to contact Governor Crist and his cabinet at: www.restorerights.org.

The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC) is a non-partisan statewide coalition of nearly forty local, state and national organizations dedicated to achieving permanent reform through a state constitutional amendment. It is the mission of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition ("FRRC") to have Florida join the 36 states in the nation that automatically restore the civil rights of all individuals with past felony convictions upon completion of their sentences. Until permanent reform can be achieved, the FRRC is also dedicated to helping people through the current process of applying for restoration of their civil and voting rights. For additional information, visit www.restorerights.org.

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