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Due Process Institute supports restoring civil rights, such as voting and driver’s licenses, after someone has completed the terms of their sentence. Rights restoration strengthens reintegration into communities, reduces recidivism, increases civic participation, and improves outcomes.
Learn about Due Process Institute’s policy work to achieve rights restoration for people affected by the criminal legal system.
Discover how Due Process Institute advocates in the courts for the restoration of rights to promote second chances.
Interested in learning about the different types of rights restoration?
Pictured right: former DPI policy director Joe Luppino-Esposito and former counsel Jeremiah Mosteller as they strategized on how to pass legislation restoring federal grant eligibility for incarcerated individuals so they can receive post-secondary education in prison. In 1994, Congress passed a bill that banned people in prison from having access to Pell Grants. In December of 2020, after 26 years, that ban was finally lifted.
Community Success Initiative v. Moore analyzed the intersection of the significant increase in the number of acts considered a felony and a practice in North Carolina that bars individuals with any felony record from voting. The brief argued that overcriminalization and the growth of “user-funded” justice in America make disenfranchisement look very different from its original intent.
The Superior Court of Wake County agreed with Due Process Institute and found that North Carolina’s statute barring individuals from voting simply because of a failure to pay fines and fees violated the state’s Constitution. You can read the court’s full order here.
Due Process Institute thanks Cheyenne N Chambers of Tin, Fulton, Walker & Owen and Tyce R. Walters of Latham & Watkins for their amicus support on this matter.