As Democrats captured a majority in the state senate for the first time since 1964, beating out Republican incumbents in two districts, the new political landscape has many reformers anticipating a once-in-a-generation opportunity to influence longstanding legislation.
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Just a few days before the election Particia Wysock, 42, was confused as to where should go to vote: do people vote by their office or home address? The uncertainty was understandable: this would be her first time voting since Ronald Reagan was in office. She has spent much of the past two decades in and out of prison – eight years total – for forgery and fraud charges.

Over 12,000 New Yorkers are released from prison each year and many of them wrongly assume that a felony conviction prohibits them from voting, according to the NYCLU. To address the problem various advocacy groups throughout the city have held voter registration drives aimed at former felons.

Patricia, who now works Fortune Society, an advocacy center for formerly incarcerated people, sees voting as an important step in her rehabilitation.

“Participating in voting is esteem-able” Patricia said, “and it makes me feel like I am more of an esteem-able person. It shows that my voice matters and I have opinions and they are being recognized.”

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS: Did you just regain your right to vote after spending time in prison? How did you feel voting again?

Or are you still struggling to regain your voting rights? How did you feel missing out in voting during the historic 2008 election?

[Use the comments feature below or call (646) 867-1891 to leave an audio message.]

Joel Schectman attends the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. His focus is economic and international reporting. He graduates in December 2009.

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You wouldn’t think Felix Castro cries at all by looking at him. He bounces and struts when he walks. His chest is broad, his knuckles massive. His hair is shaved close and two tattooed tears mark his right cheekbone. But in a plaza outside of his work near Washington Square, his eyes welled up as he recounted the students’ stories he heard when he visited Lillian Rashkis High School in Brooklyn as a youth counselor.

Castro is the founder and facilitator of ChangeNThoughts, a violence and gang prevention program in its infancy stage. He looks far younger than his age of 37 would suggest. Castro gets intense and emotional when he discusses his work. “You want to try the judicial. Did you try the rebuilding?” Castro said, before adding, as he does frequently, “What the students really need is love.” (more…)

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“In Seattle, as in drug courts across the country, the stern face of criminal justice is being redrawn, and emotions are often on the surface. Experts say drug courts have been the country’s fastest-spreading innovation in criminal justice, giving arrested addicts a chance to avoid prison by agreeing to stringent oversight and addiction treatment. Recent studies show drug courts are one of the few initiatives that reduce recidivism — on average by 8 percent to 10 percent nationally and as high as 26 percent in New York State — and save taxpayer money.”

The article and slideshow have moving stories about several people’s triumphs over addiction.

We posted an earlier story that looks at the strengths and minuses of treatment and the struggle to get funding for such programs.

The Contra Costa Times, a local newspaper outside San Francisco, has an interested piece that looks at the strengths and minuses of addiction treatment programs versus prison or jail terms. The piece profiles 32-year-old John Delino who went in and out of jail and treatment programs until he pulled himself together. But that program is running out of funding and not everyone is sold on its merits. (more…)