May 1, 2023–Due Process Institute joined the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and a coalition of civil rights organizations to urge the DC Department of Corrections and the DC Council to ensure that all DC residents can be full participants in our democracy by establishing a procedure that will allow incarcerated District residents to be notified of, watch, and testify virtually at DC Council hearings.
In 2020 the District of Columbia took the critical step of expanding the vote to incarcerated District residents through the “Restore the Vote Amendment Act of 2020.” This law expands the right to vote in local and federal elections to District residents regardless of incarceration status ending a racialized practice of denying the vote to incarcerated individuals that had its origins in Jim Crow laws. Since its enactment advocates, the DC Board of Elections, and the DC Department of Corrections (“DOC”) have collaborated to ensure that DC residents in DOC custody have not only the right to vote, but the ability to do so.
Since the start of the pandemic the DOC has utilized tablets and other technology to allow those held within its walls access to outside providers and educators. We hope this technology can be further expanded to allow incarcerated District residents direct access to and participation in their government. Consistent with local and federal law, we expect the process to be available and accessible to people with disabilities.