Locked Out Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy [Paperback]

5.4 million Americans--1 in every 40 voting-age adults--are denied the right to participate in democratic elections because of a past or current felony conviction. In several American states, 1 in 4 black men cannot vote due to a felony conviction. In a country that prides itself on universal suffrage, how did the United States come to deny a voice to such a large percentage of its citizenry? What are the consequences of large-scale disenfranchisement--for election outcomes, for the reintegration of former offenders back into their communities, and for public policy more generally?Locked Outexposes one of the most important, yet little known, threats to the health of American democracy. It reveals the centrality of racial factors in the origins of these laws, and their impact on today's political landscape. Marshalling the first real empirical evidence on the issue to make a case for reform, the authors' groundbreaking analysis will inform all future policy and political debates on the laws governing the political rights of criminals.

Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Foundations
2. The Racial Origins of Felon Disenfranchisement
3. The Disenfranchised Population
4. The Contemporary Disenfranchisement Regime
5. Political Attitudes, Voting, and Criminal Behavior
6. Disenfranchisement and Civic Reintegration
7. The Impact of Disenfranchisement on Political Participation
8. A Threat to Democracy?
9. Public Opinion and Felon Disenfranchisement
10. Unlocking the Vote
Appendices
Notes

Locked Outexamines how the disenfranchisement of felons shapes American democracy--hardly a hypothetical matter in an age of split electorates and hanging chads.... Exacting and fair, their work should persuade even those who come to the subject skeptically that an injustice is at hand. --The NewYork Review of Books

Few issues undermine the legitimacy of democratic systems more thanlq