This story is part of Locked Out, a special series from PJP about voting, politics and democracy behind bars. Click here to read more.

Incarcerated since 1996, I’ve learned the hard way that politics controls my life. 

As a lifer in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a state with notoriously harsh sentencing laws, I will only get a second chance if laws change. There are states in this country where people sentenced to life are shown some mercy, typically after they’ve served a certain period of time, expressed sincere remorse, behaved well inside, and completed various programs. But rarely is this the case in Pennsylvania, one of six states that deny any opportunity for parole for lifers. 

The laws here mandate harshness and little possibility of freedom. Most lifers can expect death by incarceration; only a few are granted clemency, even after 50 years behind bars. I’ve known many lifers who have hoped the political system would change and give them a second chance. Instead, they left the penitentiary in a body bag.

— Larry N. Stromberg, Pennsylvania

On my first day of prison, I counted a dozen cockroaches crawling about the flaking paint of my cell walls. For years, I naïvely believed politicians cared about poor prison conditions. Through countless letters to our elected officials, I fought tirelessly to affect change for the incarcerated community.

My time inside has changed my views. I’ve witnessed the rise of powerful special interest groups and their outsized influence. Prison Legal News has reported that private companies like Securus Technologies and ViaPath (formerly Global Tel-Link) control about 70% of the prison and jail telecommunications market. This dominance enables them to link favorable contracts with state prison systems while influencing how states approach prison communications. 

As a prison journalist, I report from a first-person, lived perspective. I bring to bear on my writing 30 years of often-painful prison survival. 

Absent the right to vote, writing is my only means of influencing politics. And so my writing, and that of many other incarcerated writers, is part educational campaign and part political campaign.

Although I am barred from voting while incarcerated, I am able to explain why you must. Your vote for reform candidates is also a vote on behalf of incarcerated people who can’t cast ballots.

Without these candidates in office, America’s incarcerated will remain marginalized, forever counting cockroaches.

— Christopher Monihan, Ohio

Nearly 2 million people are locked away in America, silenced by the clinking and clicking of handcuffs. 

That’s why regaining the right to be heard should be the foremost wish of everyone behind bars. 

Practically all aspects of my prison circumstances are the result of political agendas. During the “tough on crime” era, life sentences were liberally imposed, while college education funding for people behind bars was rescinded. Indeed, the fact that Pell Grants were recently restored is the direct result of nascent rehabilitation-focused political attitudes.

To vote is to matter. If an imprisoned person wants a meaningful life that matters, then regaining the right to vote while still inside should be high on their list of political interests. We matter when we make a difference, and we make a difference when we vote.

I know people behind bars who think that issues impacting our in-custody time, such as harsh sentencing laws, demand the most political urgency. But without the vote, our ability to influence politics amounts to merely a wish. As long as disenfranchisement is our reality, our voices will remain muted and our hands shall stay cuffed.

— Angel Chavez, California

Every milestone in the history of American democracy was achieved after overcoming obstacles. Women and people of color won the right to vote after centuries of discrimination. The next obstacle to overcome is the disenfranchisement of incarcerated people. 

As U.S. citizens, voting is our civic duty, privilege and constitutional right. No one should be excluded from their civic duty. America is a land of opportunity and freedom, and everyone should be free to voice their political opinions. 

People behind bars have been impacted by many branches of the government, especially the judicial branch. Because of their experience, they know from the ground up what needs to be changed and rectified by policymakers. This is just one of the many important reasons why the justice-impacted population should have the ability to vote.

Let me ask you this: If the president of the United States can hold office while in prison, why can’t currently and formerly incarcerated people have the right to vote?

— Tina Lunney, New Jersey