PAD 739 Online: Final Assignment Fall 2018 Due: December 16, 2018, 11:59 p.m., via Blackboard
On April 18, 2018, NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo passed an Executive Order that restores voting rights to people with felony convictions who are out on parole. The order affects about 35,000 parolees in New York State (Wang, 2018), including 16,000 in New York City (Committee on Governmental Operations Jointly with the Committee on Criminal Justice, 2018).
Can’t Find the Right Words? We’ll Help You Write a Winning Essay.
Tell us about your paper and we will find the best writer for your essay.
Write My Essay For MeWith the passage of this order, the NYC Council is considering a set of three bills about how to notify people with felony convictions who are out on parole about their restored right to vote. As of October 3, 2018, there are three bills currently “laid over” in the Council Committees on Criminal Justice and Governmental Operations, meaning no action has been taken on them. These bills are:
• Introduction 0367-2018, Department of probation informing persons of their voting rights. “This bill would require that information on voting rights be distributed to persons sentenced to probation.”
• Introduction 0514-2018, DOC informing released persons of their voting rights. “This bill would require that information on voting rights be distributed to persons leaving the custody of the department of correction.”
*DOC = Department of Corrections
• Introduction 1115-2018, Agencies assisting eligible parolees with voter registration. “This bill would require the Voter Assistance Advisory Committee to develop and distribute guidance for agencies covered by the Agency Based Voter Registration law on the voting rights of formerly incarcerated persons. It would also require such agencies, as part of their assistance in completing voter registration forms, to, upon request by a parolee applicant, check if such applicant has had their voting rights restored.”
The NYC Council website has the text of these bills, their movement through the Council, the minutes and transcripts of meetings concerning them – including from October 3, and testimony submitted by stakeholders who have standing on the issue. There is also a video of the 2.5-hour hearing.
Everything is here: 10/3/18 Meeting.
The Assignment
Working with a partner, review all of the legislative materials on the Council website from the October 3 hearing, plus any additional research you need to do.
Write a memo to Chairperson Powers of the Committee on Criminal Justice and/or Chairperson Cabrera of the Committee on Governmental Operations using the template provided. You can choose your audience because they’re jointly working on these bills, PAD 739 Online: Final Assignment
Fall 2018
but may have different rationales for supporting them (or one bill versus the other). The testimonies, hearing transcripts, and video all give substantial insight into the benefits and limitations of these bills. In addition, advocacy organizations like the Brennan Center for Justice have excellent information on criminal disenfranchisement laws in all 50 states, including New York. You should conduct research to evaluate the bills and make a recommendation. Unlike in the Capstone (PAD 771), when you will need to recommend only one option, you may elect to recommend one, all, none, or of a mix of the bills. Any recommendation must be based on demonstrated evidence and logic in the memo.
Memos should be ~1,500 words, or ~3 pages single-spaced, using 12 point font and 1 inch margins. Word count may vary slightly given the two tables included. What is important is to think about how to summarize your analysis in a clear, concise but detailed way for a busy Chairperson who probably does not want to go beyond 3 or 4 pages (inclusive of references). Because the council members know the bills, they only need to be briefly reintroduced by name and intent, and the majority of the memo should be spent analyzing them and making a recommendation.
How to partner on this assignment – it is up to you!
• You will both need to review all of the legislative content.
• You may decide to write a single memo without specifying who did what, and I will assign you the same grade.
• You may designate sections and put your names in parentheses after the headings, and I will grade you independently. However, I will consider in each partner’s grade how well the whole memo hangs together.
• If you divide other parts of the work (e.g., additional research, proofreading, etc.), you may include a short note to me after the references laying out who did what.
Expectations
• Clear, concise writing free of grammatical errors.
• Persuasive argumentation using logic and evidence for your position, including consideration of the political climate.
o Please retitle the headings to make them more informative than “Options
Specification.”
o You may add one additional criterion if you wish, as well as any additional considerations in the options specification table. o Hints about the political climate include the criteria for “safety” and “fairness/equity” because de Blasio’s theme for his second term is the safest, fairest, most equitable big city in America.
• A clearly specified approach to the analysis (see the slides in Module 7 + the readings for different approaches).
• Responsiveness and responsibility to your partner.
Please contact me at any time with any questions or concerns about this assignment. It is due via Blackboard by 11:59pm on December 16th.
