Melinda Tuhus Photo
What can I do about it? asked a jailhouse lawyer now on parole.
Plenty, others in the audience said.
“It” is gun violence in New Haven.
James Hanton was one of the people gathered at the Hill’s Wilson branch library Saturday to talk about what to do about it.
Hanton heard Ron Pinciaro, executive director of Connecticut Against Gun Violence, that poor communities of color — which face the overwhelming brunt of gun-related homicides — must exercise political power if they want to see changes, just as wealthier and whiter communities do. Pinciaro was the keynote speaker at the forum, organized by Barbara Fair of My Brother’s Keeper.
Hanton, who was released from jail this spring, complained that he can’t vote to retain or replace elected officials who have a direct impact on how thoroughly or not gun violence is going to be rooted out of his community. In Connecticut, ex-felons can vote once they leave jail, but only after they’re done with parole. Those on probation can vote.
“A lot of us coming out of prison want to go in a different direction,” Hanton said, “but because we have these roadblocks in the way … You’re saying in order to make these changes we need to vote, or we need to organize. What do you give a person like me?”
Others at the forum said there are plenty of ways to get active in addition to voting.
“This is what we do,” Sheldon Tucker jumped in. (He’s pictured writing names of New Haveners injured or killed by gun violence.) “Part of what we’re doing right here. A lot of the work that we did is the reason people on parole can vote. It wasn’t like that years ago, so we got together and we fought and we fought and we fought,” he said, punching one fist into the other open hand for emphasis. “Until you can vote, still become a part of that movement. And then maybe, people on parole can vote; people in jail can vote,” he concluded to many murmurs of agreement.
“You have to understand that you have influence, whether or not you can vote at this moment,” chimed in community activist Dottie Green. “There are people who do vote who you can say, ‘Listen, you need to do this because it helps me out.’ All of us have to look beyond ourselves to get the whole picture. I look to you to dig deep until your change comes — you are worth it.”
Hanton complained that he wrote to state Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield (pictured, with Dottie Green behind him) from prison and got no response. Holder-Winfield was present at Saturday’s gathering. He responded that he’s one of the few legislators who will respond to letters from prisoners and there must have been a glitch in the system.
“What I need you to be doing is to get educated enough that you can take the message to people that you can talk to,” Holder-Winfield continued. “I want to be a resource. Your part is to get that information and take that information to other people and help them get them to where you want to go. I want you to work with me so I can get you to where you can be a resource to other people.”
After the meeting, Hanton said he still wasn’t sure where he fit in to the effort to stem gun violence. But “I can give the side of the offender,” he added. “I take everything in a constructive way and use what I can for my benefit and the benefit of others.”
Pinciaro, after an initial short presentation and some Q&A, stood at the podium mostly listening to the conversation among local activists. He said his organization has initiated a Red Flag campaign, asking, after every homicide, “Where did they get the gun?” (Barbara Fair is pictured holding the flag.) In a study his group conducted, 91 percent of the guns used in crimes were in the possession of persons not legally allowed to own them, including felons, minors, those involuntarily committed to mental institutions or those under protective or restraining orders.
He also noted that persons convicted of violating gun laws are more likely to recidivate than those committing non-violent crimes. Hanton said he feared as much, based on conversations he’d had with other inmates who have come to him for help on their cases.
Pinciaro said 88 percent of prosecutions are for criminal possession, while only 12 percent are for illegal trafficking. Those at the meeting would like to see those numbers reversed, because with every trafficker arrested, many more illegal guns are prevented from entering the community. As Fair and others have been asking for years, “Where’d they get the gun?”
Former offenders may vote while under supervision of probation, just not while on parole, which is part of DOC. It's as simple as filling out the card at the registrar's office.