Lawmakers praise Centre County Jail’s voting access policies

On Wednesday, state lawmakers and voting rights activists applauded the Centre County Correctional Facilities' efforts to provide voter education and voting access to eligible inmates, calling it a model for other prisons.

Members of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus visited the county jail in Benner Township as part of a statewide tour to learn about voter outreach in correctional facilities and to support a bill that would standardize voting access policies in those facilities across the state.

“I haven't seen such robust policies in any of the districts we've talked to,” Rep. Rick Krajewski (D-Philadelphia), who chairs the PLBC's voting subcommittee, said at a news conference in the Willowbank Building. “So I want to take a moment … to applaud you for the work you're doing, because you're showing what it means to really take this seriously, to engage with the population, to give them the support they need, and to put this kind of staff and staff in place to make this happen.”

More than 20,000 people are incarcerated in county jails in Pennsylvania, and most of them are eligible to vote but may not know it. Those serving a misdemeanor conviction or in pretrial detention are eligible to vote by mail—that includes nearly all inmates at the Centre County Correctional Facility. Most former inmates are also eligible to vote.

Only those currently in prison for a serious crime or who have been convicted of violating Pennsylvania's election laws within the past four years are ineligible to vote.

Krajewski and his colleague, the subcommittee's co-chair, Democrat Aerion Abney of Pittsburgh, estimate that of the roughly 25,000 people incarcerated in county jails, only about 1,000 have requested ballots.

“The reality is that our state is not doing enough to try to reach eligible voters,” Krajewski said. “If we had a county or a city that had a 4% voter turnout, we would be like, 'What the heck is going on here?' But because these are county facilities, because these are prisons, that's considered acceptable. So we need to do more to reach those eligible voters.”

The Centre County Correctional Facility is “an example of what this can look like at the local level,” Krajewski said. But it wasn't always this way.

Before 2018, the county had no inmate voting policy, said jail director Glenn Irwin. Then former Centre County Commissioner Michael Pipe, former jail director Chris Schell and community volunteers began working on a “very robust policy” that was eventually passed by the county jail board in 2022.

Today, all inmates receive a tri-fold voting guide with information on who is eligible to vote, how to register and how to obtain a ballot. Facility staff provide education and work with the county elections office to obtain ballots for those who request them after they are determined to be eligible to vote.

“We have volunteers from the community helping us with the education process so that it remains very neutral,” Irwin said. “Just today we met with the League of Women Voters, who were at our last meeting. They had some ideas about what we can do to expand the educational materials available to the inmates. So we look forward to continuing to communicate with them and making even more information available.”

Irwin added that the correctional facility also houses inmates from seven other counties and that staff is working with those counties' election offices to obtain mail-in ballots for those who request them.

Commissioner Amber Concepcion praised the work of the correctional facility staff.

“Most of the people incarcerated in county jails are eligible voters,” Concepcion said. “It's important to have clear procedures in place so they can request a ballot and return it to either our elections office or their home county's elections office. In Centre County, our correctional facility is proactively providing voter education so eligible voters can easily request and cast their ballots.”

Based on data from the voting group All Voting Is Local, Abney said few county jails in Pennsylvania have written voting access policies and procedures for implementing them. That's something he and other lawmakers want to change.

House Bill 1756, introduced last year, would set standards for voting in all county jails in the state. It would ensure that each facility has a voter education process, distributes voter registration forms, ballot applications and ballots, and designates staff to collect and return ballots.

Tristan Smith, director of civic engagement at the NAACP national conference, said reform is needed because denying prison inmates the right to vote is tantamount to disenfranchisement.

“It is unacceptable that many people in prisons across this state are not receiving complete or accurate information about their right to vote,” Smith said. “Sometimes they are not receiving any information at all. This lack of information is a direct attack on the very essence of our democracy.”

Smith called Centre County a “pioneer in this area and a model for other county jails to follow.”

Jenna Henry, director of grassroots political organization Central PA United, knows firsthand how important voting access and information are for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people.

“My right to vote really opened doors for me and gave me the opportunity to lay the foundation for a change in my life,” Henry said. “In 2015, I didn't know I was eligible to vote. When I realized I was eligible to vote, that right to vote opened a door for me. And when I started volunteering, jobs opened up for me. And that's how it all started with that right to vote. Without that right, I wouldn't be here today. And that's why I'm really proud to be able to work with Commissioner Pipe to implement the policies that Centre County has actually put in place.”

She added that “civic engagement has been shown to reduce recidivism” and that voting rights are closely linked to efforts to reform criminal justice.

Centre County's efforts to allow voting are an example of reforming the prison system, Krajewski said. He was impressed by the “seriousness and integrity of the process” and pointed to the security measures the correctional facility has put in place for ballots.

“Centre County is definitely a good model, and the conversation today showed that they are very open and receptive to new ideas and talking about how to expand prison inmates' access to voting,” he said.

The PLBC will continue to visit counties across Pennsylvania in the coming weeks.

The last day to register to vote in Pennsylvania is October 21, and the last day to request an absentee ballot is October 29 at 5:00 p.m.

Election day is November 5th.

For information on registering or requesting a postal vote, visit centrecountyvotes.gov or vote.pa.gov.