Special to the Transcript
In its ongoing efforts to champion the democratic process for and civic engagement of all citizens of Suffolk County, including the voting-eligible men and women in its care and custody, the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department once again administered its voter participation program for the 2024 Presidential Election.
In partnership with a number of external organizations, including Healing Our Land, Inc. and the Democracy Behind Bars Coalition, among others, teams of Department staff and organization volunteers canvassed the housing units of men and women remanded to the Suffolk County House of Correction and Suffolk County Jail each week leading up to the election, offering voter registration, providing non-partisan candidate and ballot initiative materials and absentee ballots for the voting-eligible.
In Massachusetts, members of incarcerated populations who are eligible to vote include those who have been convicted of misdemeanor offenses and pretrial detainees awaiting sentencing.
This election cycle, the Jail fielded 162 absentee ballot requests and the House of Correction fielded 119 absentee ballot requests from registered voters at both facilities.
As it has since 2021, the lobbies of both Department facilities were outfitted with official election ballot drop boxes, courtesy of the City of Boston. While these drop boxes were used primarily to expedite the process of securing the ballots cast by the people remanded to Department custody, their location in the public lobbies of the Jail and House of Correction – which are open and staffed twenty-four hours a day/seven days a week, with full surveillance – made them accessible for use by any registered Boston voter.
“Ensuring that the men and women in our care and custody receive extensive opportunities to participate in the electoral process is crucially important, because it helps to keep them connected to society and civically active while otherwise disenfranchised by incarceration,” said Suffolk County Sheriff Steven W. Tompkins.
“We are both proud to continue providing these critical instruments of civic engagement to the men and women in our care and custody, and we are grateful to the volunteers and staff who help to administer the process. We are also thankful for the City of Boston’s continued commitment to increasing access for our population with the siting of the election ballot boxes in our facilities.”
The Department’s mission to ensure that all eligible men and women within its facilities have unfettered access to the voting process dates back well before the advent of the VOTES Act of 2022, with voter registration drives, ballot distribution initiatives and a number of candidate forums held inside the House of Correction. Included among past events held before audiences of in-custody men and women were forums for candidates vying for Mayor of the City of Boston, the Massachusetts Senate, and Suffolk County District Attorney, along with two Boston City Council hearings, all of which were first-of-their-kind events for the State of Massachusetts.