Empowering Descendant Communities to Unlock Democracy
Empowering Descendant Communities to Unlock Democracy is a collaborative project—between the Mindich Program for Engaged Scholarship at Harvard College, Healing Our Land, Inc. (HOLI), the African American Coalition Committee (AACC), and the Democracy Behind Bars Coalition (DBBC)—that aims to address systemic inequities affecting descendent communities behind bars. The exclusion of eligible voters in jails and the disenfranchisement of people with felony convictions undermines political power and exacerbates the racially discriminatory outcomes of the criminal legal system. Our project encompasses two mutually reinforcing components: (1) the implementation of jail-based voting and civic education programming and (2) laying the groundwork to re enfranchise thousands of people who are currently denied the right to vote. ​
Jail-Based Voting and Civic Engagement
The team is implementing the Mobile Ballot Box Initiative, which will enable eligible incarcerated voters at the Suffolk County House of Corrections and Nashua Street Jail to cast their ballots in official lock boxes provided by the Elections Department.
In addition to the voting infrastructure provided by the Mobile Ballot Box Initiative, our project will provide access to nonpartisan civic educators from Boston and Cambridge.​
Universal Voting Restoration
The Universal Voting Restoration team will build the movement to ensure no MA voters are excluded from our democracy on the basis of a felony conviction. The ultimate goal is to change the state constitution through a legislatively-referred constitutional amendment. To do so, we focus on legislative advocacy, a signature collection campaign, and building political organizing power among the most-impacted communities. The most impactful way to disrupt the legacy of slavery is to change policy—a revert to the pre-2000 constitution would restore voting rights to over 7,700 incarcerated people in MA, who are 60% Black and Latinx.​
Harvard Undergraduate Curriculum and Extracurricular Student Engagement
The project will provide the foundation for an undergraduate course and create new opportunities for students that leverage established extracurricular programs and relationships on campus.
Meet the Team
Corey ''Al-Ameen'' Patterson was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, and he is a co-founder of the Empowering Descendant Communities to Unlock Democracy project. He was the former chairman of the AAACC (2020-23) and longstanding director of its voting rights initiative. In 2019, he worked with MassPOWER around an initiative petition to end felony disenfranchisement in Massachusetts. In late 2020, he began working collaboratively with DBBC helping to draft and organize around the passage of An Act to Protect the Voting Rights of Eligible Incarcerated Voters in 2022 via the VOTES Act. In 2022, Al-Ameen earned his BLS from Boston University Prison Education Program, he has been incarcerated for 15 years serving a 15 years-to-life sentence. He is expecting to see parole in 2025.
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Dr. DeAnza Cook is a Harvard alumna and an assistant professor of African American History and Black Leadership at The Ohio State University.
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Joshua “Hamza” Berrios, is a formerly incarcerated organizer affiliated with the AACC’s Voting Rights Initiative. He co-leads the Civic Engagement team.
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Pastor Franklin Hobbs is the founder and executive director of Healing our Land, Inc., a Boston-based non-profit organization with a mission to serve both the currently incarcerated population as well as returning citizens. He has helped get-out-the-vote in Boston jails for more than two decades.
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elly kalfus is an oral historian and prison abolitionist. elly is based in boston, and has been working letter-by-letter with local incarcerated people for 10 years now to support their freedom struggle. elly contributes to the coalition through meeting facilitation and recruiting volunteers for jail-based voting. Check out some of elly's oral history interviews exploring the ongoing fight for the right to vote in Massachusetts: https://oralhistory.columbia.edu/2018-ballots-over-bars.
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Caroline Sullivan has been involved in the DBBC since spring 2021 where she focuses on the campaign to restore universal voting rights. Born and raised in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, Caroline is currently a second-year law student at NYU School of Law.
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Maurice Skillman is a currently incarcerated organizer who's role is to seek endorsements and identify organizations or individuals who want to join the coalition and endorse voting rights restoration. Ending felony disenfranchisement is the goal! Maurice earned a BA degree through Emerson Prison Initiative. He is a board member of the AACC at MCI-Norfolk.
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Alex Gallett is the inside meetings/ agenda organizer, where he gathers information from all organizations to make sure everyone is abreast to the specifics goals and objectives, and prepares weekly agenda topics for general meetings. He is heavily invested in regaining voting rights as an incarcerated individual. He is in his second year of Emerson College. He is a big believer of uniting together for a common goal, which is why he supports all cultural advocacy groups in MCI Norfolk including the AACC, Latino Cultural, and Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Alliance.​
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Yisbert Lara helps the DBBC with public records requests. Currently incarcerated at MCI Nofolk, Yishbert is wrongfully convicted for 18 years for a crime he did not commit. During his incarceration, he has been educating himself in school and different programs. He works in the law library at MCI Norfolk, and works in the legal department for the AACC, which allowed me to learn about structural racism, discrimination, and prejudices often faced by people of color.
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Justin Rodriguez works with multiple organizations to restore universal voting rights in Massachusetts. Ending felony disenfranchisement is important to him because to return to his community as a productive member in it, he has to be welcomed. Over the years, Justin has organized in many spaces with many outside stakeholders and organizations around legislative bills, advocacy, providing testimonials, community outreach, civic engagement work, and more.
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