Good Morning Aurora
Know Your Rights! (Kelly Yue, ACLU, Senator Karina Villa & Representative Hernandez | 9/17/2024
Good morning friends and neighbors! Today we have an important conversation and an awesome guest panel for discussion. Our topic today will be voting rights in Illinois, and importantly, those rights for persons convicted of a crime in Illinois. Our guests are Kelly Yue, Legislative Operations Associate for the ACLU of Illinois, State Senator Karina Villa and Representative Barbara Hernandez! Let's get ready to learn, here's the news:
- Our friends at NAMI KDK are currently hiring for 3 great positions! Part-time coordinators for youth and family, as well as a Manager of Development and Fundraising are being sought and interested candidates can apply online. NAMI KDK is very active in our community addressing mental health with solutions and advocacy, now is your chance to join an amazing organization. Visit the website here to apply and learn more about a future with NAMI KDK: https://www.namikdk.org/volunteer-1
- The Kids Expo hosted by the Office of State Representative Stephanie Kifowit will be Saturday, September 14th from 10 am to 4 pm at Phillips Park Aquatic Center! Our team will be there delivering helpful information and resources for families as well as our partners of the Aurora Financial Empowerment Center. Admission is free for this event and there will be many emergency vehicles for kids to explore as well as food and more! See the flyer for more details, see you there!
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- Broadcast on:
- 10 Oct 2024
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This episode is brought to you by Financial Times. When it comes to voicing or acting on our opinions, why are some people more confident than others? With the Financial Times, you form your own opinions with conviction based on unbiased and trusted reporting, FT journalist hack look global issues with an impartial and rigorous mindset, providing the facts and analysis that you need to make up your own mind. Make up your own mind with Financial Times. Visit ft.com/thejournal to read free articles and subscribe. Imagine the softest sheets you've ever felt. Now, imagine them getting even softer over time. That's what you'll feel with Bolin Branch's best-selling signature sheets in 100% organic cotton. In a recent customer survey, 96% replied that Bolin Branch sheets get softer with every wash. Start getting your best night's sleep in sheets, they get softer and softer for years to come. Try their sheets with a 39 guarantee, plus for a limited time, get 20% off your first order at bollinbranch.com/codespan. Exclusion supply, seaside for details. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Good morning, Aurora. I'm Ruby Sue, and I have a very special group with us today. If each of you could introduce yourselves and what organization you are with, then we'll jump right into it. >> Well, good morning. Thank you for having us. My name is Barbara Hernandez. I'm the state representative of the 50th District. I cover areas of Aurora, North Aurora, and Batavia. Born and raised in Aurora, so I'm very excited to be here. >> Good morning, everyone, and happy National Voter Registration Day. I am Gary Navia, and the Illinois State Senator for the 25th District, which encompasses parts of Aurora, goes all the way up through parts of Elgin and South Elgin. I'm so excited to be here. >> Thank you. >> Good morning. I'm Kelly Yu. I work for the ACLU of Illinois Advocacy Department. Thank you for inviting us, and happy to be here. >> Thank you so much for being here. What is the ACLU? Can you tell our viewers a little more about that? >> Absolutely. ACLU is the American Civil Liberties Union. We are the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the country. Many people think of us as a free speech organization, but we do a lot more than that. We work on criminal justice reform, policing, the child welfare system, reproductive rights, and fundamental to all these civil rights is the right to vote, which is why I'm very excited for our conversation today. >> I am as well. So, again, thank you each for being here and what a perfect day. Perfect day to be here. So, I want to ask, can an individual convicted of an offense exercise the right to vote? >> Yes. After an individual has completed their sentences, they are eligible to become voters and to participate in the democratic process again. >> Okay. Very good. So, what about while they are incarcerated while they're in? >> Thank you. So, if someone is currently being held before their trial, they are eligible to vote. It's really important. First of all, let's just rewind for a few seconds. Folks with criminal records really struggle when they come out after they've served their time. Society kind of keeps having them pay their debt to society, even though they've already finished with their sentence. So, today's conversation is so critical. We are speaking to you because we really want to make sure that you, if you have a loved one here in the state of Illinois who was formally incarcerated, that you share this information with them, that you let them know that it is critical for them to go out and vote and that they can and should go out to vote in this upcoming election. >> But currently, if you are incarcerated, you cannot vote. So, that's something that honestly we've been trying to fix for the last few, I think, year to years now. There has been a bill that would allow people who are currently incarcerated to be able to vote. However, we have not been able to get close to that. I think one of the reasons is people have different ways of thinking when you think someone who was incarcerated. There's currently 3.3 million people in Illinois that either have a crime record from one arrest to just years spent in jail. And that alone means that there's a lot of people who have gone through the system, have gone through incarceration at some point in their lives. But unfortunately, many people still have that stigma of, you know, you're a robber, a criminal, a murderer, and people are scared. >> Right. >> They shouldn't be. >> Right, because that's not always the case. Sometimes people make a simple mistake or sometimes they make a larger mistake. So, it's definitely more commonplace than people are thinking with that statistic of 3.3 million. But unfortunately, I guess the louder voices that we hear are people saying take care of my community. We don't want certain people in our neighborhoods. And that's unfortunately a bad, it's always a hard kind of topic to navigate, honestly. >> I feel the opposite. I feel that if we treat people well and we treat people humanly and we give people options and educate them and give them more tools, then that is taking care of our community. That is building a good community. >> Yes. >> I agree. >> If I can just add one more point that there has been robust research showing participating in the democratic process, exercising one's right to vote helps reduce recidivism. So, if we want stronger communities, safer communities, we should encourage people who have a criminal record to vote, because that is what makes our society, makes Illinois stronger. >> Amazing. And you mentioned so there is movement for a bill. So has it always been this way in the United States that you can't vote if you are incarcerated? Always, that's sad. So how can we, is there any way we can help move the bill forward? Is there anything the public can do? >> Thank you. >> Something that we always say is call your legislators. Call them. Call us. Let us know how you feel about this subject. Remember, when, at the state level, when we are passing laws, we are passing laws for everyone who lives here in the state of Illinois. That is including those folks who are currently incarcerated. One of those laws actually that is looking to be passed is the Nelson Mandela bill. And that talks about people who are incarcerated and who are in solitary confinement in the amount of hours that there are a lot. They have the complete specifics. But when I think to myself, these are human beings. And in the state of Illinois, we have some of the most regressive policies when it comes to solitary confinement. So why wouldn't we want folks to give their feedback and give their voice about how they are treated while they are in confinement? >> I will say that another bill that I do have and we were briefly talking about how you're interested in this topic. I do have a bill that is HB 5219. People know the number more than the topic, but it's the truth sentencing reform. So right now people who are incarcerated, many of them have been incarcerated since they were 15, 18 years old. And now they're in their 40s, 50s, 60s. They're getting older. They have health issues. They serve their time. However, because our system is so broken, they're still there. And it's costing money to our state, to us, to taxpayers. Average per one person, it's around 36,000 people, 36,000 dollars that we spent on one person who was incarcerated. So imagine how many we have already. And so this bill would pretty much reform that truth sentencing formula and allow them to have an ability to get out of jail earlier. And that's something we've been working on for the last few months. I've had conversations yesterday with other my colleagues on this topic. And everybody honestly is calling our office. We're getting letters from people who are incarcerated saying, "Hey, I have a better idea." And many of them, honestly, they're trying to work for this. They're not trying to just say, "Oh, yes, I'm going to get out." They really want to put the work in. They're trying to get certifications, going to classes, get job readiness. And they really want to earn this ability to get out. But it's been very hard for many of them. I can only imagine, and I also cannot imagine being a child, because if 15 you are a child, I don't care what anyone says. And not having good choices, because there's a difference. People say, "Oh, make good choices." But not everyone has that in front of them, making a poor choice, and then having to pay for the rest of your life, and never being able to have rehabilitation, and be part of that great community. Which, as you stated, people want to be. Absolutely. And we know that when folks come back home, we know that housing is an issue. We know that finding a job is an issue. But we are here to tell you that voting is not an issue. So go vote. This is something that's so critical. Your voice matters to all of us, and it is important. You're not alone in this. 3.3 million people in the state of Illinois have criminal records. Half of that, half of those folks have felony charges. And we're telling you, go vote. It's critical, it's important, and it's your right. Can we talk about everybody? One thing I would like to add is at the ACLU, we've been traveling across the state to talk to voters to let them know that they have the right to vote. A lot of the times we hear people say, "I don't care about politics. Voting doesn't help me. Why should I even vote?" And I'm sure the two legislators here would have a lot more to add. As someone who has been doing this work for some time, I would say that your voice matters a lot in local elections. You're not just voting for the president or the Congress. You're voting for local elected officials who will make decisions that impact your life. You will be voting for judges, prosecutors, your elder person, your state representative, and senator. These people make decisions for your community. So if you want your community to be shaped the way that you want it to be, then exercise your right to vote. It is important for the whole community. Absolutely, I absolutely agree with that. And I think also people don't always have a full understanding of what voting is. And as you said, judges, prosecutors, which makes a difference in people's lives. Can we touch on felonies and people who have felonies having the right to vote? How it is now and where can we go? Before 1970 in Illinois, people who have a felony record actually cannot vote. There was a change in state constitution that restored that right for people who had felony records. And a lot of the times the confusion on whether someone with a criminal record can vote actually is because other states have different practices. In other states, sometimes there's a post sentencing period up to five years than people can petition to restore their right to vote. In some states, if someone has been convicted of certain offenses, they are permanently disqualified from voting. In Illinois, that is not the case, but because of how different states are handling the situation, this is where the confusion comes. And this is why it's important to talk about this issue today. So just to recap, your rights to vote are immediately restored upon the completion of your sentence. So again, go vote. Go rock the vote. I don't know if that's the other thing, but when I was coming of age to vote in the 90s, there was the "Rock the Vote" campaign. So what else can we do to get rid of the stigma attached to? I would say talking to people. Talking to people educating them is very important. I don't think people realize how many, and honestly, when I was doing some research for this, I was amazed to see that there's 3.3 million people. The state alone has 12 million people, so 3.3 is a big number. It's a very big number, and I saw that in Illinois also, there's a total of 548,000 that have felony convictions. And in the whole country alone, there's 19.6 million. So that's a lot of people, and they could be our neighbors. I've met a lot of people that seem big and scary, but they're nice and cuddly. I have a couple of great people, right? I won't put their business, but they are so sweet. They're so loving for their families. I know if I need help with something, a lawnmower, or something that will help me or anything, and I would help them. And I think people need to start thinking about why did this happen? Why did this person make this decision? It wasn't just because, "Oh, I'm tired, I want to do something and commit crime." It's weird or bad. No, it's mainly that if you look at the history or the background of the person, where are they coming from? Are they coming from a neighborhood that doesn't have resources, that doesn't have a grocery store? Our farm is so desert, that all the necessities, the school might not be the greatest. Do they come from a family that either they're taken care of by a grandma, or the parents are just not very focused on the kids from a broken home? There's a lot of reasons that someone kind of steps in, and they're looking for a friendship, and many people go into gangs because of that. They're looking for acceptance, they're looking for people that will say, "I care about you, I love you, but you need to know." A type of family unit that looks out for each other, because that's the option that's there. My advice would be, before judging anyone, look at their past, look at their backgrounds, or ask questions, and then you'll be able to tell what happened. What are some things that the government and organizations need to do better to create those resources for families? I agree, I think that this is a topic that a lot of folks want to shy away from talking about, simply because of the stigma that goes along with having been incarcerated. Look, I was a school social worker for 15 years. In the trajectory of my time as a school social worker, the amount of students that I had who had family members who were incarcerated, I lost track, I lost count. When I have those families in my heart, I think about the father specifically, and something we haven't addressed, let's just face it, who's incarcerated? It's the people of color, it's men of color, specifically black males. When we're taking this amount of folks who have been incarcerated, and now we're taking away their right to vote, what does that say about the representation that they aren't going out to vote for? This is really important to talk about because as a result of going out to vote, you then start electing people, little by little, who look like you, who think like you, who have values like you do. Both Representative Hernandez and I are proud members of the Illinois Legislative Latino Caucus, but there's also the black caucus that represents as composed of people in the state of Illinois who are representing folks who are black out in their communities, and they are part of the legislature. Many times, they're the ones who are championing these bills, but we as a Latino caucus are right there with them, making sure that we're voting on the right side of the issue because these are critical issues, folks are paying their taxes, they are out working, they are raising their families, and they should also be voting. Imagine the softest sheets you've ever felt. Now imagine them getting even softer over time. That's what you'll feel with Bolomb Ranch's best-selling signature sheets in 100% organic cotton. In a recent customer survey, 96% replied that Bolomb Ranch sheets get softer with every wash. Start getting your best night sleeping sheets, they get softer and softer for years to come. Try their sheets with a 39 guarantee, plus for a limited time, get 20% off your first order at Bolomb Ranch.com CodeSpan, Exclusion Supply, Seaside for Details. I'm just curious, and our viewers may be curious, I want to know how each of you got involved with everything you're doing today. What led you here? That's a great question. I actually am not an eligible voter. I came to the US seven years ago for my undergraduate studies in Colorado. I moved to Illinois three years ago. I fell in love with the state, and that's why I'm still here. One of my passions for doing voter education work is because I don't get to vote. But I want to make sure people who have the right to vote are eligible to make this democratic process a better one for all of us. I love that, and so you, I'm sure our viewers know, so you don't get to current that process. I know this isn't what we're discussing. I just want to make a quick segue for, again, some of the viewers that might not be familiar or a little scared about the process. As a current green card holder, I will need to become a citizen before I can register as a voter, and it is a long process. I've been going through it for some time and expect to be in this process for a few more years. Thank you. So, I'll say how I got to this place of advocacy for voting rights instead of why I became a state senator. So, as a kid, my mom always took me with her to vote. Back in the day, it was very common, I born and raised in the suburbs, born and raised in DuPage County. My mom was a naturalized citizen, and so she would take me, she would never tell me who she was voting for. She didn't tell me what political party she affiliated with. It was more so we're going to vote. This is what we do today. And so I think that growing up, I saw that, and I saw the value and importance of where she stood when it came to voting and voting rights. That, to me, really opened my eyes and really got me to a point of realizing that it really matters. Our voice really matters. And I grew up in a community that didn't completely look like me. DuPage County was not at all a large Latino population back then. Okay, so going to the ballots and seeing mostly people who didn't look like me when my mom was lining up to vote really was impactful, right? And so now one of the things that's really critical to me kind of related to the previous conversation that we're having here about immigration is folks who might have mixed status households, youth whose parents might never have gone to vote because they didn't have the right to vote because they were undocumented. They now can vote. So these are conversations that I have with people on a regular basis. If you can't vote, that's okay. Tell your children to go vote. Tell your neighbor. Tell your friends. This is really important to exercise that right. And if you can't vote, that's okay and your kid is nervous. Just go with them. Go with them that day. It's okay. Noah, you just can't vote. You can go with them. You can hold their hand. You can take them out to breakfast afterwards, right? You don't have to be the one voting to encourage other people to go vote. I love that. And I never thought of bringing my children. I didn't grow up with, you know, any kind of community or political awareness. I have that now. So I'm like, okay, I think I have to take my children with to see. They need to get their eye voted sticker and they go to school wearing it and it's like a whole thing. Very cool. For me, it's pretty much what I like to center mention. Everybody has a different story. My story is that my parents were undocumented and that motivated me to get more involved in the community. My dad was always pushing me also to like, hey, volunteer. Let's go volunteer here. Let's go do this. And when I was younger, I didn't like it because I would have to wake up early and go volunteer with my dad. But now I appreciate those moments because he really taught me to help the community, to love the community. But also because he was undocumented, he wanted me to be engaged and be able to hopefully one day vote when I was 18. And I was excited. I think that was the number one thing. I was like 18, yes, I can vote. Let me sign up right now. And then my dad was able to become a citizen. I think now four years ago. Oh my gosh, so congratulations. I was able to take him to vote for the first time. And I had to convince my dad to vote for me. So that's something that I had to go through the whole process and knock on his door and just ask for that vote. But it's great to see that the families are, many families are still getting their documents ready. They're becoming residents. They're becoming citizens. And there's a lot more. So I hope people will apply to be a citizen. I know the prices are going up. So I would recommend people to do it as soon as possible. When my parents were applying further citizenship, I believe it was maybe close to $600 back then. Now it's closer to a thousand. I had no idea. And that's another obstacle that unfortunately people have when becoming a citizen. What I've been telling people recently is becoming not a resident and a citizen. The only difference between those are really mainly able to vote. You're able to vote as a citizen, but not as a resident. And many people decide, oh, that's not enough to become a citizen in their views. But I really hope they do reconsider. There's a lot of scholarships out there that people will give to pay for that documentation. Okay, I was going to ask if there was any aid because that's a lot of money for a lot of people. Right. And then there's also a test that people are nervous about. But there's a little constitution test that you can take and preview the questions and just get ready for that test. And then after a certain age point, you're able to do the test in Spanish. So that's something that I know we're waiting for. Is it available in any other languages or just English and Spanish? No. Okay. Yeah, I've only heard Spanish right now, but we have like Arabic speakers and other things. Yes, that's something that I hope the federal government will change then. You guys listening? Yes. But it's just beautiful to see. And it's beautiful to be able to register your own family member with my dad. I register him to vote and then take him to vote. That is so, that's so amazing. Oh my gosh. So, and then speaking of people getting involved in the community, are there any seminars, workshops coming up that the community can get involved with? I do have an event coming up. It's not really related to the voting rights, but it is about jobs and being able to get your licenses for social work for clinical psychologists and so on. Currently, there's a long period of weight to kind of get those documentations, and it's taking a little bit longer than usual. So many people are calling our office saying, "Can you help me with this process?" And it's in a way it is know your rights of being able to get your own, your license to be able to work in that field. So, we do have an ORA in the public library on September 30th. Okay. From four, I believe it's during the day from like two to four. Okay, and two people need to pre-register for that online. Okay. They can go to the library's website. Go to the library's website, call our office and register there. Okay. So, in regards to this topic, I don't have a workshop coming up either, but I do want to make sure that you're aware that you have folks that you can go and ask these questions to you. If you're not sure where to go, the library's always a great one, always a great space to go and ask these kinds of questions about photo registration, but you can also come to our offices. Representative Hernandez has an office in Aurora, as do I, come and ask the questions. All you need to do is re-register to vote once you've completed your sentence. All you have to do is re-register to vote. Here in Illinois, we've also expanded the ability to do that. You can, all the way up to election date, you can register to vote. So, and now the locations, if you live in a King County, you can go vote anywhere in King County. This is a big deal, right? It's a big deal, access to the ballot. You hear about other states, you hear national news, and you hear about other states that are trying to find ways to suppress the vote, right, and not allow people to vote or make it much more difficult for people to vote. We in Illinois are doing the opposite. Vote by mail is another really easy way to go out and vote. So if you have any questions about any of these topics, at our official state offices, just remember, we can't tell you who to vote for because it's an official state office. We can help you figure out how to vote. That's different. So please make sure to reach out to our offices if you have any questions. On the ACLU website, there is a lot of voting and registration information. So go on to the ACLU of Illinois website, find about what rights you have, when can you vote, when can you register to vote. Another thing I would say is we are traveling across the state to do community canvassing. We give out these palm cards that say have a criminal record, you can still vote. So if you're interested in knocking on doors with us, hanging up posters in community areas with high foot traffic, send us an email, contact us, we would love to partner with you, and come to the state, come to your neighborhood, to knock on the doors and let people know that they have the right to vote. Oh, I love that. I would love to help with that. Do you guys have anything else to add? I know that I said I could probably talk about this stuff for a couple of hours, and now I feel like I'm missing some things. Yeah, I just think that there's a lot of questions, there's a lot of stigma, there's a lot of fear, but this comes from historically, there has been fear about that. There's been fear about women being able to go vote and why they shouldn't go vote. There's the history in this country about instilling fear in people about voting, there's a long dark history with that, but here in the state of Illinois, we continue to work hard to make sure that we got this information in front of people, in front of the voters. And that's it. We're going to do as much work as we can, and we'll be there at the ballot box and we'll be watching for you because we'll be there really, yes, you did it, you went out, you came out, you voted, you know, so it's really important. All of our voices matter. And I just want to say, the ACLU is amazing with all the resources. I was able to actually print this out. It's a little checklist for people that are currently incarcerated or recently out. And it just says, are you eligible to vote, and then you have to answer the first three, and then you can move on to the next one, and it says you can vote if, you can vote if not, can't vote if. So it just tells you a little bit of more information, and it's easier to understand, but I got this from the ACLU Illinois website, and it's just a great resource to have, and it's a two-pager, so it has more information on voting and things to know. But it's just great to see that this is available for people, so they're not confused. I also forgot to mention something that in 2019 we actually passed a law here in the state of Illinois as well, so if you're currently, like I said, I think earlier we glossed over this, but if you're currently detained awaiting trial, which we did end cash bail too, so hopefully those numbers of people have significantly reduced in the state of Illinois. But if you are one of those people who are currently detained, or you have a loved one who's currently detained, awaiting trial, and they can vote, so make sure to speak to the county sheriff, they need to work and find ways to allow you to vote. So you haven't gone yet in front of the judge, you don't have your sentence, you're in the county jail awaiting your trial, you also have the right to vote here in the state of Illinois. So go on to that, if you are on parole, probation, electronic monitoring, you still have the right to vote. So go on to the ACLU website, like the representative said, there's a checklist for you to gloss through so you know when you have the right to vote. Okay, I love that and it sounds like the ACLU website definitely is a font of resources for people, and people can learn a lot. I didn't know that if you were freshly on parole or electronic monitoring that you could vote. Again, I think attached to that stigma, we just don't know as a general public, and if you've been incarcerated, how do you know? And circling back, I know when I asked, how do we help move those bills along, you know, and it's contact your state representatives? I hope some people feel less intimidating because I know that for a lot of people it feels intimidating to reach out. It feels to some like public state representatives are and senators are untouchable figures. We're servants of the people. We're the new generation of people who are in elected office. Okay, I mean, we are approachable. We are one of you. We live in your community. We want you to approach us. Actually, one of my favorite days in Springfield is when there's large groups like hundreds of people that come to Springfield to advocate for these kinds of laws and they're made up of majority folks who have been formally incarcerated. So those days, like hearing those stories and sitting with them in our offices in Springfield is truly emotional. It is like hearing their stories and they don't tell us about why they were incarcerated, but they tell us about their journey and their journey since and how they have come back into their communities and the different things that they're advocating for. Some of the laws that they're fighting for aren't even going to impact them, their impact, but they're here wanting to be a voice. So I think that's beautiful, right? I think that it's beautiful when you're wanting to advocate for folks because you know what that struggle was like. So we are approachable. I'm not sure how much more we can demonstrate that. But please, we have open door policies in our offices. We're here to do the work for you. I agree. No, I think we're definitely a different generation. Our goal is to not only help our community make legislation that will help our neighborhoods, but also just to be a different type of quote unquote politician. I don't like that word, but it sometimes is the easiest way to describe what we do because people don't know what a state representative does. But it's just I'm born and raised in a room. I still live in my community. I live in the here in downtown, my office in downtown. So for me, it's I'm always walking around. I'm always walking around. I want people to see me go get a sandwich across the street, get a juice, get anything and just walk around in the community. I think people like that see me. They do stop me and tell me a little bit more about work that they want me to do. But it's just great for them to see that I am approachable that can come and talk to me anytime. And it's just something that I hope more people would do. But I know that younger generation is the one mainly leading that path to being more accessible. They're amazing. Yeah. Yeah, I love that you're a part of the community and you're active. It's real and it's authentic and a lot of us do when we hear the word politician. It sounds like a dirty word. It conjures up a certain image. So I'm very excited for the time we live in where there's so much more diversity in the voices and it's relatable. And like I said, if you know when you're young and you went to with your mother to vote, you didn't see that representation of people that looked like you. I understand that. Thank you all so much for being here today. And I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed learning the new information. I know that our viewers did. Do you guys want to add anything else before we sign off? Okay. Well, thank you so much. And thank you, Aurora, for watching. We'll see you soon. Thank you. [BLANK_AUDIO]