Rep. Barreiro Unresponsive to Florida Rights Restoration Coalition

FRRC Sends Letter Requesting Action on Promises

For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Contacts:
Brandon Hensler, Communications Director, 305-576-2337 ext.16
Muslima Lewis, Esq., Director, Racial Justice Project, 305-576-2337, ext. 18

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Frustrated by the lack of response by Rep. Barreiro, the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC) sent a follow up letter to him urging action on draft bill #14956—legislation to restore the right to vote for Floridians who have been stripped of those rights due to a past felony conviction, even though they have paid their debt to society. The original letter dated April 6 requested that Rep. Barreiro introduce the draft bill and to respond to the coalition by April 14.

After no response to the letter, and a broken promise by Barreiro’s Legislative Assistant to respond to a request for a meeting made by FRRC Steering Committee member Muslima Lewis, a follow up letter expressing the Coalition’s concern was sent on April 17 and is included below.

“After working so closely with Rep. Barreiro’s office since early September 2005, it is extremely disappointing that he seems to have abandoned this rights restoration legislation at the eleventh hour,” said Muslima Lewis, a FRRC Steering Committee member. “This is especially troubling since the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee today unanimously voted in favor of similar legislation introduced by Senator Frederica Wilson.

“Despite this temporary set-back in the House, the rights restoration community remains committed to working with legislators who agree that Florida citizens should be given the opportunity to vote on removing this unfair voting ban from the state Constitution and that all Florida citizens should be given the opportunity to vote.” Lewis is also a senior attorney and Director of the Racial Justice Project of the ACLU of Florida.

Rep. Barreiro’s failure to introduce draft bill #14956 shows the coalition members that he is not willing to follow through on his promises to the Florida rights restoration community. There are currently over 600,000 disenfranchised persons in the state of Florida whose basic rights are still denied after completing their sentence. These rights include the right to vote, hold public office and obtain certain occupational licenses.

Full text of the letter follows:

April 17, 2006

The Honorable Gustavo A. Barreiro
Florida State Representative, District 107
221 The Capitol
402 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1300

Re: Draft Bill #14956 – Restoration of Voting and Civil Rights

Dear Representative Barreiro,

This letter follows up on the April 6th letter that the undersigned member organizations of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition Steering Committee wrote to you reiterating its requests that you follow through on your promise to introduce draft bill #14956 relating to restoration of voting rights for Floridians who have been stripped of those rights due to a past felony conviction, even though they have paid their debt to society.

The FRRC Steering Committee had requested a response to its April 6th letter no later than last Friday, April 14th. We have received no response from you. Moreover, your Legislative Assistant, Ana Garcia, failed to follow up on her promise earlier last week to contact Muslima Lewis, a FRRC Steering Committee member, regarding Ms. Lewis’s request to meet with her at your District Office in Miami. In light of your failure to respond to us, and the impending deadline for committee hearings, we can only conclude that you have chosen not to follow through on your promises to the Florida rights restoration community.

The FRRC is extremely disappointed by your failure to introduce legislation in the Florida House that you had promised you would introduce since as early as the beginning of September 2005. As outlined in our April 6th letter, members of the FRRC have worked closely with you since that time because we had every reason to believe that you were sincere in your desire to have the rights restoration issue receive a hearing in the Florida House during this legislative session.

Further, throughout this legislative session, and until last week, we were repeatedly assured by you and your staff that you would file draft bill #14956 as a proposed committee bill, and it would be scheduled for a hearing by the House Criminal Justice Appropriations Committee. There was nothing to prevent you, as Criminal Justice Appropriations Committee Chair, from doing so - thereby ensuring that the rights restoration legislation would get a hearing in the Florida House.

We cannot overemphasize how deeply concerned we are that you have reneged on your promises and have apparently abandoned your stated commitment to the rights restoration issue. Your repeated assurances that you would introduce draft bill #14956, coupled with the fact you did not advise us that you had decided not to address this issue until it was too late in the session to seek another sponsor for this legislation, means that you have single-handedly shut down the possibility of the rights restoration issue being heard in the Florida House during this legislative session.

As we increase our grassroots support on the rights restoration issue and discuss our experiences during the 2006 legislative session with our members and supporters, your failure to introduce draft bill #14956 and schedule a hearing on the bill will necessarily be part of those discussions.

Very truly yours,
FLORIDA RIGHTS RESTORATION COALITION:

11th Episcopal District Lay Organization of
the African Methodist Episcopal Church
ACLU
ACORN
Advancement Project
Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities
Better Way of Miami, Inc.
Brennan Center for Justice
Brothers of the Same Mind
Concerned United People (CUP)
Congregations United for Community Action (CUCA)
Demos
Determination, Education, Justice, Acceptance (DEJA)
Florida AFL-CIO
Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
Florida Cannabis Action Network
Florida Coalition on Black Civic Participation
Florida Conference of NAACP Branches
Florida Council of Churches
Florida Institutional Legal Services
Florida Justice Institute
Florida Voters League
Gray Panthers of South Florida
Homeless/Formerly Homeless Forum
Human Services Coalition
Inner City Grassroots Civic Coalition International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement
Justice Fellowship
Labor Line, Inc.
Latino Council for Latin American
Advancement (LCLAA) Central FL Chapter
Latino Leadership
The Law Offices of Public Defender Bennett H. Brummer
League of Women Voters of Florida
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition
Movement for Change
National Campaign to Restore Voting Rights
National Lawyers Guild Gainesville
Office of Public Defender Carey Haughwout
Palm Beach County Urban League & Young Professionals Group
Peace and Justice Subcommittee of the Presbytery of Tampa Bay
People for the American Way Foundation
Project Civil Rights Restoration
Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project (SVREP)
The March for Justice
The Sentencing Project
Voice of Freedom
Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. Bar Association
YWCA of Greater Miami

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