“Everybody with the right to vote ought to be able to exercise it.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) — For the first time, some Metro Corrections Home Incarceration Inmates will be granted a release on election day to cast their vote.
HIP inmates are either serving time from home or waiting for trial, but not from behind bars. Some are granted special releases for work or school and on November 6, eligible and registered voters will be released to go to the polls.
Louisville Urban League’s Sadiqa Reynolds said, “Everybody with the right to vote ought to be able to exercise it.”
Metro Corrections Assistant Director Steve Durham said, “as Courts often note a person arrested and charged does not leave his/her constitutional protections at the jail door. Voting is important, and we are proud that the Courts have given consideration to this opportunity.”
Durham said eligible HIP Participants will schedule a time and a place to cast their vote with the supervising Metro Corrections HIP Officer.
“To be honest with you we should be even releasing people from jail to vote because if you have the right to vote, you are pre-trial, you haven’t been convicted yet, there’s really no reason why we couldn’t. I understand there’s some safety concerns and I think that’s why the chief justice judge Edwards focused on those people who already have releases,” Reynolds said.
Chief Judge Brian Edwards signed the ordered granting a one-time release to registered and eligible voters who already have other community releases
“These are folks who are being able to be released to go to work, go to school, to do other things so simply saying and we’re going to give them the right to vote as well,” Reynolds explained.
Metro Corrections staff will be monitoring the inmates who are released to vote.
►Contact reporter Shay McAlister at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter (@WHAS11Shay) andFacebook.
Source: Some HIP inmates will be released to vote on election day | whas11.com
