"DEAR COUNTY OFFICIALS, SUPPORTERS AND FRIENDS,"

We hope you are safe and healthy during this lengthy pandemic. These are indeed stressful times. So it’s extremely important not only to us – but also to the people we serve – that we remain strong mentally and physically.

Now, more so than ever, we at the county level are needed to govern and to help lead us out of this COVID-19 public health crisis. However, in addition to the virus, we also have other pressing matters that must not get lost – the upcoming elections and the ongoing Census. Physical distancing caused by COVID-19 justifiably has created fear in people who do not want to stand in long lines at crowded polling places. Voters and election workers should not have to choose between risking their health and exercising their right to vote. We are urging everyone to continue to push for expansion of eligibility for mail-in ballot voting.

Without a doubt, vote by mail is the best way to protect people’s constitutional rights to cast their ballots and help stop the spread of COVID-19. We should work to make sure that every registered voter can take advantage of this option should they choose to do so.

Therefore, it’s imperative that all of us continue to battle those factions who oppose vote by mail for people who are under 65 years of age, do not have a disability or are not ill. The health and safety of all citizens is paramount. Finally, it’s equally essential that we continue to remind constituents to respond to the 2020 Census. Everyone needs to be counted so that each area can receive the

correct amount of funds for health clinics and highways; fire departments and disaster response; education programs such as Pre-K and college tuition assistance; and so much more.

Again, we can’t thank you enough for your support and participation in this great organization. Please stay safe and healthy.

We hope this email finds you well. We’ve heard from many of you about the increased digital needs. We know you are working tirelessly to respond to our communities with information on broadband awareness and usage. We want to be part of that timely support as well. Therefore, we’ve moved up the date for launching the Spectrum Digital Education RFP process this year. Join us as we share more information during an upcoming webinar. Please RSVP through the link below:

PLEASE REGISTER HERE

The CTIA Connecting Kids Initiative This new wireless industry program connects school districts with wireless operators in their communities, simplifying the process to help children learn remotely during COVID-19 using mobile hot spot solutions. “Millions of kids are learning from home for the first time and the wireless industry is committed to helping make sure they have the opportunity to learn remotely. We are proud to launch this initiative, and of the many other ways the wireless industry is helping, but we can’t do this alone. It’s important that Congress provide the funding the education community has sought to support hotspot-capable devices and services essential for remote learning.” - Meredith Attwell Baker, CTIA President and CEO

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.—On Valentine’s Day, some seven years after leaving the state Capitol as Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, Kris Steele watched an old man in a purple shirt pee into a cup.

“Do you have any special plans for today?” Steele asked the man as he stood vigil a few feet away in the worn yellow bathroom of The Education and Employment Ministry. Steele, a boyish looking 46, runs TEEM, a street-level nonprofit in downtown Oklahoma City that helps felons reenter society with job training, life skills and drug testing. Here, even the director snaps on blue latex gloves for urinalysis duty.



There is no shortage of work. Oklahoma has  led  the nation in the number of citizens it incarcerates, often in a neck-and-neck race with Louisiana. A June 2018 report by the Prison Policy Initiative declared Oklahoma “the world’s prison capital”—putting the tally at 1,079 people incarcerated per 100,000 when counting prisons, jails, ICE detention and juvenile lockup. The governor’s recent spate of commutations—including the record-setting 527 in a single day in November—and parole board reforms have helped nudge down that number, but the prison system remains so overloaded that the state’s Department of Corrections has requested $884 million to increase capacity by 5,200 beds.

“I refuse to believe Oklahomans are the worst people in the world,” Steele says. Rather, it’s a state suffering from addiction, trauma and poverty, and a political culture that prizes tough-minded approaches to social problems. He argues the penal system merely makes that situation worse. When I visited him in Oklahoma before the Covid outbreak, Steele told me that he loves his home state, “but we’re awfully quick to look at incarceration as a solution. It tears families apart, it creates instability. It makes the situation much worse.”

Steele’s opinion might not count for much except that he’s a well-connected and high-profile Republican in one of the reddest of red states, a political prodigy who was elected to state government at age 27 and within 10 years had ascended to speaker of the state House. A Baptist minister and fiscal conservative, Steele ultimately found his calling in an issue that was not a legislative priority of his party: reforming the prison system.

The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified calls to improve voter access during the 2020 election cycle. The Sentencing Project’s commitment to the enfranchisement of people who are incarcerated or have criminal records motivates us to echo those calls. One large group of voters that has long been left out of the electoral process are the 700,000 people held in local jails around the country. The vast majority of these individuals are eligible to vote because they are either awaiting trial or are serving a sentence for a misdemeanor conviction, but not a felony. Yet few jurisdictions have established a process where people in jails can vote.

As localities consider voting best practices, a  new report from The Sentencing Project  highlights jurisdictions around the country that actively support ballot access for residents detained in local jails through absentee voting or jail-based polling sites. These initiatives should serve as models to be adopted by all jail systems in order to ensure that individuals housed there do not forfeit their rights of citizenship. 

Reforms highlighted in the report include: 

FOR MORE INFORMATION Please be in touch with Nicole D. Porter, The Sentencing Project’s Director of Advocacy at  [email protected]  

The Sentencing Project

1705 DeSales Street NW 8th Floor | Washington, District of Columbia 20036

202-628-0871 |  [email protected]  |  endlifeimprisonment.org

The Sentencing Project works for a fair and effective U.S. justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing policy, addressing unjust racial disparities and practices, and advocating for

alternatives to incarceration.

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