Customer Reviews

Conned: How Millions Went to Prison, Lost the Vote, And Helped Send George W. Bush to the White House

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As Americans, we want to see ourselves as the good guys--the defenders of freedom, democracy, and justice around the world. Yet here we are, creating a patchwork quilt of confusing and Byzantine laws, that make it impossible for millions of our own citizens to participate fully.

In Conned, journalist Sasha Abramsky exposes our country's dark underbelly and lets us see these disenfranchised Americans as real people, some of whose crimes are pitifully minor--being in the wrong place at the wrong time, sitting in the car when a friend committed a criminal act, or possessing a couple of joints. There are examples of youthful indiscretions or accidents similar to those committed by our first Family (vehicular manslaughter, substance abuse, forged prescriptions) which can result in a lifetime of disenfranchisement if one has the bad luck to be born to a poor family in the wrong state.

When Abramsky interviews someone who did commit a serious crime and has served his or her time and paid the fines, he questions whether preventing them from voting for the rest of their lives does us a favor or disservice. The stories range from the wistful, to the angry, to the resigned who simply don't believe anything can possibly change for them.

This is a book about class and racial injustice as much as anything else. We may have eliminated slavery and Jim Crow laws on the surface, but Abramsky clearly spells out how the rule of law conspires to keep many of our citizens in a permanent underclass. It is no longer acceptable to use the N-word or to publicly make racist statements, but the continued failure to update these restrictions prevent many from turning their lives around or achieving their potential.

The bottom line--if we want the disaffected to transform and become productive members of society, they need to have some "skin in the game." What is the point of young Americans dying to bring freedom to the people of Afghanistan and Iraq, when we systematically deny those fundamental rights to those here at home?

It is impossible to read this book and not feel deep sadness and outrage. I told a friend about the book who expressed surprise that convicted felons wanted to vote. An hour later, she brought up the subject to me, "I've never even thought of this as something to consider." Without a book like Conned, I suspect most people never will.

If you want to hear from an expert on how the growth of the prison population has directly affected voting outcomes, this is a must read book. Sasha Abramsky has laid out the facts in great detail and with extensive research. Be very careful when you vote for a politician who is a "Law and Order" type. Think it through. With 2.3M people in prision we all pay the price.

Reading this book is similar to watching a movie produced by Michael Moore - the author makes some good points, but goes so far overboard in trying to make them that it sounds more like liberal propaganda than an actual argument. I work with offenders and think that their right to vote should be restored, but I don't think I'd go about making my argument the way Abramsky does - the reader ends up thinking the whole idea of reenfranchisement is ridiculous because the argument is too loosely supported to be taken seriously.