Why letting former prisoners vote makes sense
As highlighted in the Oct. 9 AJC article “Advocates in Georgia face barriers getting people who were formerly incarcerated to vote,” keeping formerly incarcerated people from voting deepens their disenfranchisement and limits their ability to shape policies affecting their lives and communities.
Many of these people come from marginalized backgrounds in which systemic racism and oppression have created environments riddled with violence and limited resources — paving the way for desperate measures, including gang involvement, crime, drug use and generational trauma that leads to incarceration. Racial discrimination in the criminal justice system makes Black Americans more likely to go to prison, serve longer sentences and endure longer probation periods.
The right to vote immediately on release would give these individuals a much-needed platform to influence real change. Our politics can no longer silence these voices — the ones who can most help disrupt and dismantle the oppressive systems that landed them in prison in the first place.
ANNIE LONG, ATLANTA
Predicting school violence is government overreach
While everyone’s watching the presidential election, something very concerning is apparently going on in Cobb County’s Board of Education (“Schools hire secretive company to detect risks,” AJC, Oct. 26).
Servius, a company populated by many former military types, is offering the county service to predict safety risks before someone shoots up another school in Georgia. This secretive company says it will use artificial intelligence and data scraping to track and predict future school safety breaches. This move should scare every parent in Georgia concerned about overreach and invasion of privacy.
These so-called sociocognitive experts say they will use 16 indicators to predict school violence. The state legislature has already allocated $47,124 per school for safety measures. Most of this money will be spent on stronger doors, more resource officers and more metal detectors.
Wonder why no one in Cobb County is talking about the elephant in the room, which is Georgia’s unfettered love of guns anywhere, anytime?
REGINA SMITH, ATHENS
