Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
The Arizona Rights Restoration Foundation
I ran for office in 2012, as a Republican in Arizona’s third most liberal county. While I lost, I got the highest vote percentage of any Republican in my county.
One thing that shocked me was the huge number of people who had lost their right to vote due to the conviction of felonies, especially on the Reservation. These people were usually covered in shame when I asked them to vote for me and they told me that they couldn’t vote as a felon. Most of them had been drinking when they were arrested, and many of them had pretty healthy periods of sobriety.
I asked them why they hadn’t had their convictions set aside and their rights restored. They would respond that they didn’t have the $1,500.00 to hire an attorney. That didn’t make sense to me, what is involved is writing up a quick petition and filing it with the Court.
After the election, I created the Arizona Rights Restoration Foundation, and I have filed dozens of petitions in the last five years. We only seek to have convictions be set aside and for rights to be restored, but not for the restoration of gun rights. (Note: Even if convictions have been set aside, those convictions can be used by the state in future criminal prosecutions.) We don’t file for the restoration of a defendant’s gun rights, as my co-founder is a progressive Democrat who is now Flagstaff’s mayor.
The Arizona Rights Restoration Foundation does not charge for my attorney’s fees. This is a public service that I do. I have been greatly blessed in my life. To those who have received much, much is required.
The cost of criminal prosecution and probation is high. Incarceration is very expensive. If someone can get clean and sober, then that saves the public a huge amount of money.
I just saw another client today. With her permission I am repeating the redacted allegations of her petition.
COMES NOW the Defendant ___, by and through her attorney undersigned, who requests the Court to enter an order restoring her civil rights, other than the right to bear arms, pursuant to A.R.S. §13-909 and §13-911, and to set aside his/her conviction.
- The Defendant’s mailing address is: ___.
- The Defendant was convicted on or about ___.
- The crime for which the Defendant was convicted was Attempted Aggravated Assault Domestic Violence.
- The sentencing for this crime was or about ___.
- The Defendant was convicted of this crime in the Coconino County Superior Court.
- The Judge who sentenced the Defendant was the Honorable ___.
- There is other information I would like the Court to know.
- I began drinking when I was thirteen years old. I now have over one year of sobriety. My sobriety date is July 12, 2016.
- The incident in this case occurred when I was under the influence of alcohol. All of the criminal charges that I have been convicted of have been when I was under the influence of alcohol.
- I have successfully completed the nine month “Matrix” program at The Guidance Center.
- I have been placed on medication for PTSD and anxiety, which I have been fully compliant with. I realize now that when I was drinking, I was self-medicating.
- I lost my left eye in 2015 when I was assaulted by my ten-year paramour. This was another example of the consequences I have suffered due to the use of alcohol.
- I have successfully completed Intensive Probation in this case and then Probation. Once I became clean and sober, I have been fully compliant with the requirements of Intensive Probation and Probation. I met with Attorney Gary E. Robbins back on November 29, 2016 and he indicated that as long as I was on probation, I couldn’t apply to have my conviction be set aside. I have worked hard in the last 17 months to be fully compliant so that I could make my application to have my conviction be set aside.
- My criminal convictions have made it very difficult for me to obtain employment. I was referred to Mr. Robbins by Vocational Rehabilitation.
- I am asking that the Court set aside this conviction, and restore my civil rights. I have another felony conviction in CR ___ and I am filing a petition in that case. I realize that I have a long way to go, but as long as I stay sober, I believe that I will be able to live a successful and productive life.
- I realize that even if my conviction is set aside, if I am convicted of a crime in the future, this conviction can be considered by the Court.
I believe that the Holy Spirit sends people to us, and that we meet by divine appointment. It was a pleasure to help my client today.
A few of these people will register to vote. They will likely vote Democratic. Such is life. However, more important to our community is that they be welcomed fully back into the community so that they can also be called to jury duty and be recognized as full citizens. They are our brothers and sisters, and we have a duty towards them.
Published in General
Don’t you think that private companies won’t come out with lists created of the list of convictions if you do that? And how will that be more accurate? A conviction is a public record. A court might remove it later, but it’s still public when the judge or jury makes a decision. If you want convictions to be secrets, then we have a very serious police state potential.
The next question is, how many felons do you hire? Why should others hire felons if they don’t want to?
People should be free to associate with anyone they choose, and hire anyone they want, and fire anyone they want for “a good reason, a bad reason, or any reason at all” (which is the law in Texas).
Your complaint is certainly heartfelt, and I understand and agree somewhat with the sentiment, but your proposal treats a symptom and leaves the disease unchecked, all while doing more harm.
Gary, I want to salute you for this work. You should be proud of yourself, and your efforts are a credit to the Arizona Bar.
One can always debate the merits of a particular case. I have no desire to engage in such debate. There is a proper, established procedure allowing people to demonstrate responsibility, and if they do so, to be relieved of some of the consequences of a prior conviction. Your willingness to give of your time and talent to help such people is truly admirable.
Huzzah!
Nice work Gary. Thanks for sharing.
I have gotten a lot of static for my member feed’s post “Any Republican would have won in 2016.” Thank you for all of your kind words.
Gary obviously you have broad shoulders. You and I don’t always agree, but your essay’s are worth reading.
I have met heroic people.
I had a client who started drinking as a child. By the time she was in her 40’s she had a series of 4 or so DUI’s. She was on probation for the last two felony DUI’s and had had two stints of about 100 days in jail, in part for public intoxication, a violation of her probation terms. (She would be sent to prison if she were again arrested for DUI.) She was cleaning Flagstaff motel rooms by the day, and was living in the park and drinking at night. She was long gone.
Her daughter drove 150 miles up from Phoenix, and told her that she had just had given birth to a boy and that her daughter wanted her son to know his grandmother. The only condition was that my client could not drink in her daughter’s home. My client agreed, and went home with her adult daughter, breaking her probation in the process.
My client reports that she was unable to go into a grocery store for well over a year. She knew that she would be compelled to buy or steal alcohol. So she would not enter any grocery store. She went to AA meetings and hung in there.
A few years later, a crisis hit. My client’s own mother was showing signs of dementia. My client needed to go home to the reservation and care for her own mother. The problem was that she had skipped out on probation, and if she came across law enforcement, she would be arrested, placing her own mother at risk.
My client had to face the consequences of breaking her probation. Her daughter drove her up to the Coconino County Jail in Flagstaff and she turned herself in. The next day she had her Initial Appearance and the Public Defender was reappointed to her. She stayed in jail, awaiting her hearing three weeks away.
In a December morning, she faced the Court. She had stayed out of trouble for years. She showed sobriety. She was needed for her own mother in another county. The Judge released her from probation.
She saw me a couple of years later. She was a strong confident woman, caring for her own mother who my client brought to my office as she cares for her own mother 24/7. What struck me in her story was that for over a year in sobriety, my client knew that she could not enter a grocery store, so she stayed out of grocery stores. And, when the call came for her to care for own mother, my client turned herself in to the county jail, and faced the music.
I did not call for things to be secret, I wanted records to expire after people have served time. That is different. Nor, am I asking for people to be unable to reveal their own chargers. How fast you jump from me wanting to protect liberty, to the idea that I am harming it.
In my old job, in fact, we hired felons. See, we wanted to help those with mental illness and substance addiction with peers, people who are in recovery, to help guide them. Guess what goes with those two things? Felonies. (Simple things, often. I mean, right now, shoplifting in GA is a felony if someone in your party steals over $500. Boom! I have a problem with that). But, to your question, we wanted to hire felons.
What a great notion. Maybe if we had that right already, I’d be all for it. I am saying that the State should not be putting permanent black marks against its citizens, unless that is part of the criminal code itself. Even then, as we look at things like sex offender lists, we see that is totally abused. No fly list? Abused. I am making an argument to lessen the State’s power over our reputations. Maybe that is as radical a libertarian notion as no zoning.
That is your opinion. I disagree with it. And I wager I have seen the bleeding damage done to the life of someone trying to do the right thing now far more often that you have. I am not advocating more harm, I am advocating Liberty and Justice for all.
Gary, you are totally on target with this one.
Records expire? How would that work? I think I would start a business recording every conviction as it occurs to ensure the information is available to employers in the future when the government does some Orwellian erasure of the past.
The nature of a reputation is that it is based on past behavior. The state does not have a monopoly on reputation. The state merely keeps records of the past. What the people decide to do about their knowledge of the past is up to the people, not the government. I want to know if someone is a criminal before I hire them. That is my right, to have access to those public records and judge the person’s reputation accordingly. It is up to the individual, not the government, to rehabilitate his own reputation.
I do not like to be put in the same category as those that have robbed banks or convenience stores. Any bank robber or convenience store robber should have more to atone for, and it is I who decides if he has atoned and reformed, not the state before I make a decision to trust him with a cash register.
It’s important to be realistic when dealing with troubled people. Most of them would like to turn it around, but many of them never will. Anybody who would like to help them get back on track needs a way to tell the difference. All such people face decisions that force them to choose between facing the consequences of their past actions in order to overcome them, or continuing to avoid the consequences and digging an even deeper hole. The more they do the former, as your client did, the more confident we can be that our efforts to help wont be wasted.
I sure hope so.
BTW, if I have a person in my office who I am not really impressed with their recovery, I will print out forms that they can fill out themselves.
Clearly, you believe in holding the past against someone until they are dead. Once a criminal, always a criminal to you.
Here you are, making the argument that state should keep records to make it easier for you to know someone’s reputation. The state already can ruin a Man’s reputation without ever getting a conviction. How much worse is this?
Then again, when I talked about unemployment, you told me to stop whining. Your answer to everything, it seems is “suck it up because you don’t deserve any compassion”.
Finally, for someone who thinks reputations of others should all be out in the open, I find it curious you hide behind a non-de-plume. I will admit, I take the opinion of someone who hides their identity with less value that people like Gary, who is open about who he is, and what he stands for. I might disagree with him, but I can face him Man to Man.
They have a hard enough road. Gary is helping to remove what can be removed.
The state didn’t ruin their reputation. They ruined their reputation. They can repair it, but I’ll be the judge of that, not some bureaucrat nor some political henchman.
I never said any such thing. You made that up. What I said is that I will be the judge of their reputation when it comes to hiring for a job. I will trust my own judgment as to whether they are trustworthy and I won’t rely on the state to do that. When I make my judgment, I will want to know all about the person’s past. It will depend on the nature of the job, and my assessment of the person as to whether the person can be trusted.
My college roommate is a priest who embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from his parishioners and justly was sent to jail. Until he was caught, he had been considered as a good candidate to be the bishop in the future. The church eventually restored him to a ministering position but they will never trust him with money again. Why? Because of his past actions.
I like the guy, but I agree that I don’t think he should be allowed around money. I’d hire him to be a counselor, a teacher, or the like. I wouldn’t hire him to run a cash register. You’re suggesting that if the state thinks he’s done enough, then everyone else must as well. I don’t agree the state should have that power.
What’s it to you? I’ve been called this name since 1988. You know who else used noms de plume? Benjamin Franklin. John Adams. Alexander Hamilton. James Madison. The list goes on. I’m in good company.
I am just judging your words now, based on your words and attitude in the past. You know, your reputation.
A great example of not needing the government to manage the reputation.
I am saying that if the sentence is for 10 years, and you serve that, your have paid your debt to society. Maybe the laws should be changed. Maybe, in this sort of crime, the laws should read that you are not allowed a job that touches money.
Curious that in a discussion on reputation, you hide who you are. You must worry what you type here might hurt your reputation. The men you site also said very significant things as themselves on politics.
You confuse punishment with rehabilitation. The two are not the same. Because someone is punished by confinement and serves the entire confinement has absolutely nothing to do with your propensity to commit another crime.
Why are you making this personal? Do my arguments change their effectiveness depending on who I am? Are you that shallow?
I hide nothing. I am Skyler and I’ve been Skyler on the internet since at least 1995. There are certainly others named Skyler, but there are probably others named Bryan as well.
Stepping here before we get too heated folks. It might be time to agree to disagree.