Civic Engagement

In Washington, DC, 95% of residents sent to prison are Black, despite the city now being just 41% African American – a stark reflection of racialized criminal justice and gentrification. These individuals largely come from the poorly resourced and disenfranchised wards 7 and 8, with 24% fewer residents voting in 2024 than in predominantly white Ward 3. They take those attitudes into prison with them, leading to an alienation from the broader DC community and contributing to continued marginalization when they are eventually released.

Thus, when the DC City Council passed the Restore the Vote Act in 2020, allowing incarcerated residents to participate in elections, the lack of motivation became one of the biggest challenges to overcome. More Than Our Crimes focuses its efforts here, while other organizations such as the League of Women Voters concentrates on logistical issues, such as the timely delivery of ballots into the prisons.

 More Than Our Crimes hopes that by focusing on education about how the system works and motivation to engage with and help change it, more incarcerated DC residents will both vote and seek ways to participate in government decision-making when they are released. In turn, this will help change the economic and social trajectory for their entire community, as well as serve as a model for other jurisdictions. 

How we work

• Leading up to election time, we poll our members to determine their most pressing concerns and prepare candidate profiles tailored to those priorities, which we send into the prisons via email and letters.
• We invite candidates to pepare personal messages based on those issues, which then send to our members.
• We also employ creative motivational tactics, such as an “urban novella” with a voting theme, written by one of our network members and sent in to the prisons via Amazon.

 Progress achieved: In 2024, 60% of the DC prisoners who registered also voted, vs. 44% previously. 

In between elections, we work to meaningfully keep incarcerated residents engaged – informing them of new developments in DC, soliciting their opinions on policy issues up for debate, and bringing those opinions out to council members, local media, etc.

Plans for the future

To continue to deepen and broaden our work in this space, and achieve lasting change, we are seeking funding to: 

• Launch a correspondence-based civic education course: In partnership with Georgetown University’s Civic Engagement Lab, we will deliver a unique course that teaches how individuals and organizations influence policy change. Because in-person and online instruction are often inaccessible inside prisons, this correspondence-based model, built through letters, Bureau of Prisons email, and mailed materials, is both innovative and scalable.
• Build a leadership pipeline post-release: Returning citizens will have the opportunity to join a paid, six-month leadership academy focused on storytelling, public speaking, organizing, and advocacy. This academy transforms civic education into real-world power, creating pathways for those directly impacted to shape community and policy priorities.