By Desiree Cooper

With many states considering closing their prisons in order to balance their budgets, it’s time to ratchet up the national conversation about what to do with a growing number of ex-felons, especially those who are sincerely trying to re-integrate into society. Should employers be able to probe into their pasts? Should they be denied the right to vote?

The restoration of ex-felon voting rights varies from state to state. In Michigan, voting rights can be restored after release from prison.

Recently, I ran across Michigan Circuit Court Judge Craig Strong. Strong is known all over Detroit for his firm justice, connection to the grassroots and flamboyant clothes. As we chatted, a middle-aged woman interrupted us. She said that she would never forget the judge because she’d been before him 20 years earlier, asking that her criminal record be expunged.

“I remember how the prosecutor fought me so hard,” said the woman who is now a counselor in a homeless shelter. “But you listened to me and cleared my record. Because of that, I was able to work again. I’ve been giving back to the community ever since.”

This summer, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced that the state could no longer afford to run its prisons, which soak up nearly a quarter of the general budget. She will close eight prisons and three minimum security camps this year to save the state more than $118 million.

Other states are reaching the same conclusion. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed releasing more than 22,000 inmates—not those who are violent or sex offenders—with less than 20 months left to serve—as a way of saving $400 million. Rhode Island, Kentucky and Mississippi are among those reportedly considering related measures.

The Michigan closings will mean the lay-off of about 1,000 state employees and the release of 4,000 prisoners who have already served their minimum sentences.

According to a September 2009 report of The Sentencing Project, only two states allow felons to vote while in prison—Maine and Vermont. Michigan prohibits voting while in prison, but 35 states prohibit felons from voting even after they’re out on probation. In Kentucky and Virginia, ex-felons lose the right to vote permanently.

The hard truth is that 60 percent of African American males who drop out of high school serve some time in jail. “Given current rates of incarceration,” said the report, “three in ten of the next generation of black men can expect to be disenfranchised at some point in their lifetime. In states that disenfranchise ex-offenders, as many as 40 percent of black men may permanently lose their right to vote.”

An Associated Press news story, from October 4, 2008, reported that, “Nationally, there are roughly 4 million released felons whose convictions have cost them the right to vote at least temporarily, if not permanently. To return to the ballot box, felons must negotiate suffrage laws that vary from state to state, in many cases working with election officials who can be both unfamiliar with the law and hostile to former convicts seeking to register.”

The story cited a finding of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice that “Roughly 13 percent of black men nationwide have lost the right to vote. Black ministers, civil leaders and activists believe theya re a rich source of votes for Obama.”

While a columnist for the Detroit Free Press, I interviewed Toni Bunton, who was only 17 when she was involved in a drug deal that left one teenager dead and his twin paralyzed for life. Burton was sentenced to 25 – 50 years. While in prison, she became the first woman in her family to graduate from college. She received certificates in, among other things, AIDS counseling and paralegal services.

Last fall, Gov. Granholm commuted her sentence after she had served 17 years.  Since she has been free, Bunton, now 35, has begun her master’s of business degree at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.  She is a community activist who now works with a non-profit that helps educate at-risk girls.

Full of remorse, Bunton told me that her whole goal in life is to make up for the lives she destroyed as a teenager. I shudder to think that what would have happened if the governor had not commuted her sentence, deciding instead to let Bunton languish in prison until the year 2041, costing taxpayers about $40,000 per year. Instead, she’s a productive citizen, paying us back.

In November, Detroiters will face an interesting decision: Whether to elect ex-felon Raphael B. Johnson to the Detroit City Council. Johnson, 34, emerged ahead of more than 160 contenders in the August primary, placing 15th with 10,843 votes.

In 1992, Johnson, then 17, killed Johnny Harvard outside of a party. Johnson served 12 years for second-degree murder. He emerged an author and motivational speaker for inner city kids. He has appeared on the Maury Povich Show. Now married and a father who has sought to reconcile with the victim’s family, he has received the endorsement of Detroit Police Chief Warren Evans, and was given a 2008 Hoodie Award by entertainer Steve Harvey for being the nation’s best community organizer.

I caught Judge Strong again in his courtroom on an October afternoon. Coincidentally, he had just set aside the conviction of a woman who completed her sentence years ago and is now working on her master’s degree.

“I congratulated her on turning her life around,” said Strong.

He realizes that ex-felons face many challenges, and he’s seeing younger, more violent offenders as Detroit’s economy worsens. But he said that he believes it would be more effective for the criminal justice system to concentrate on repeat offenders, the small handful of people who are committing the bulk of the crimes.

“And we have to pay more attention to prisoner re-entry,” he said. “We have to make sure that people get drug treatment and anger management behind bars. When they are released, they need to have intensive support so that they are equipped to get back into society.” According to the Detroit News, Detroit has 17,000 ex-felons, including one who is current Detroit Mayor Dave Bing’s top aide, and another who is challenging the mayor in November.

If this recession means the end of the prison industrial complex which has been built upon the backs of people of color, then perhaps that’s at least one silver lining.

And if it also means that people will begin to make sure ex-felons receive education and life-skills training while behind bars, we may find that ex-felons will not only pay back their debts to society, they will also become taxpayers and voters, more fully contributing to their communities on many levels.

That won’t just help turn their lives around—it’ll turn our neighborhoods, our cities and our nation around as well.

Desiree Cooper is a contributing author to the anthology Other People’s Skin: Four Novellas. A former columnist with the Detroit Free Press and co-host of public radio’s Weekend America, she is now a freelance writer, BBC correspondent and novelist. You can find her at www.descooper.com.