Reuben Jonathan Miller, a MacArthur fellowship-winning sociologist professor at the University of Chicago, visited Boston College last Wednesday to discuss the carceral system, voting rights, and citizenship.
Miller commenced his talk with the concept of voting and the power behind it. He stated: “Voting is the most visible way citizenship can be expressed.” Yet, there exists major voting restrictions for newly released incarcerated people.
Miller posits the argument that voting rights and criminal histories should not be related, especially when marginalized people face extreme discrimination in the legal system. Minorities and impoverished people are overrepresented and overly punished by the judicial system. Miller suggests that the voting rights taken away from incarcerated people is another form of discrimination that marginalized people face.
Furthermore, Miller discusses problems with the infrastructure of the prison system. He cited various health issues associated with being incarcerated and the diseases rampant within prisons. Additionally, he brought up the fact that incarcerated people are 7 times more likely to become homeless.
Miller went on to connect the implications of these statistics with the experiences of people he has met to contextualize the issues and connect with the audience. He told the stories of three people: Jimmy, Bridgette, and Lorenzo.
Miller spent time with Jimmy on a research project regarding the post-release process. Jimmy needed to receive job training for his parole officer, but the one place where he could go closed down, putting him at risk of returning to jail.
Miller knew Bridgette through her advocacy, but she and her children faced a lot of trouble finding housing. Her landlord, who provided her with horrible living conditions, worked to make sure that no other landlord would allow her and her family to live in one of their units.
Lorenzo was convicted of robbing drug dealers, and when he was staying in a halfway house with the clock ticking against him, he had trouble finding income for when he had to leave. Without a job, he would be violating parole. On his second to last day of paid housing, he saw two dealers flashing money in public. Tempted to return to old habits, Lorenzo broke down and cried.
All of these stories ended well, with a good person intervening to save the day. Yet they also convey the price of carceral citizenship, an overwhelming burden that puts formerly incarcerated individuals in unfair positions.
Miller asked his audience that as a takeaway from these stories, they listen to formerly incarcerated people. He stated that we all spend so much time lecturing them on what to do and what mistakes they should not have made in the past that we never listen to what is currently happening in their lives.
He left the audience with a question, asking them “What kind of society do we want to live in?” He asked the audience to ponder this, listen to the experiences of those affected, and act in ways that they think are best. Miller’s original idea, the importance of voting, is highlighted again. The way in which we use our votes is perhaps the most concrete way in which we can express our voices.
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