HIRE Network Applauds Landmark Decision Challenging Felony Disenfranchisement; Increase in Funding

On January 5, 2010, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rendered a decision in a landmark voting disenfranchisement case that struck a blow to Washington State's voting law that disenfranchised thousands of individuals with past felony convictions residing in the state, a disproportionate number of these individuals were Blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans. This landmark decision further illuminated the startling statistics that show that people of color are disproportionately represented in this country's criminal justice system, thereby, disproportionately impacted by legal and policy barriers that prevent them from fully participating in society after paying their debt to society.


See the press release issued by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and click here to read the court decision.


Visit H.I.R.E's Unchaining Civil Rights website, which will give you more insight about other criminal record based institutional and structural exclusions that result in de facto discrimination.

In federal budget and other legislative news, despite continued focus on healthcare reform legislation in the Congress, last week there was also significant progress in moving the FY 2010 federal funding bills.


On December 10th the full U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve an omnibus FY 2010 spending package by a 221 to 202 vote. The Senate approved the identical spending bill on December 13th by a 57 to 35 vote. Early last week House and Senate appropriators released the FY 2010 spending package that includes funding requests for a number of federal agencies including the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Labor (DOL).


Under the FY 2010 spending package approved by Congress, programs authorized by the Second Chance Act would receive $100 million, an increase of $75 million over FY 2009. Specific Second Chance Act programs would receive the following funding amounts under the Congress-approved omnibus spending bill:

  • Adult and juvenile state and local reentry demonstration grants (Section 101) would receive $37 million, an increase of $22 million over FY 2009
  • Mentoring and transitional services (Section 211) grants would receive $15 million, an increase of $5 million over FY 2009
  • Family-based substance abuse treatment (Section 113) grants would receive $7.5 million Reentry substance abuse and criminal justice collaboration (Section 201) grants would receive $13 million
  • Reentry courts (Section 111) would receive $10 million

Under the Congress-approved FY 2010 omnibus spending bill, additional DOJ programming would receive the following funding amounts:

  • The Byrne Justice Grant (JAG) program would receive $511 million, funding nearly level to FY 2009
  • The Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT) program would receive $30 million, an increase of $20 million over FY 2009
  • The Drug Court program would receive $45 million, an increase of $5 million over FY 2009
  • The Mentally Ill Offender Treatment program would receive $12 million, an increase of $2 million over FY 2009

In addition, under the Congress-approved FY 2010 spending package Transitional Jobs programming would receive funding through the DOL. Under the spending package DOL’s Employment Training Administration (ETA) would receive $30 million for a new competitive grant program to provide transitional job activities and an additional $15 million in ETA’s Reintegration of Ex-Offenders program for transitional jobs in FY 2009.


The text of the spending package can be found at: http://thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/app10.html. The upcoming FY 2011 funding process will begin in February with the release of President Obama’s budget. HIRE will continue to provide updates as the federal funding process moves forward.


Click here for an update on other important criminal justice related legislation.