Inspiring Videos From NJ Ex-Inmates: 'Voting Changed Our Lives'

NEWARK, NJ — To Tia Ryan, a New Jersey resident who was sentenced to 12 years in prison as a teen before ever getting the chance to vote, taking part in the 2020 election is a chance to finally make sure her voice is heard. To Ivelisse Gilestra Bibi, voting is a “chance to shift power.” And for Ron Pierce, registering to vote “added value to his soul.”

These are some of the inspiring stories that have emerged from the 2020 election, which marked a watershed moment in the lives of thousands of former prison inmates and people with criminal convictions in New Jersey.

A bill that restored voting rights to an estimated 83,000 New Jersey residents on probation or parole was signed into law in December 2019. Only people currently incarcerated for an indictable conviction are excluded from voting.

The new law took effect in March – just in time for the primary election.

New Jersey has now joined more than a dozen other states that have acted to restore voting rights to people who have served time in prison.

The Newark-based New Jersey Institute for Social Justice (NJISJ), which helped to lead the charge for the law, said that it “raised democracy’s ghosts out of the shadows.”

According to the nonprofit, those people included Ron Pierce, a veteran whose right to vote was stripped away for 34 years after a criminal conviction.

During a ceremony at Bethany Baptist Church in Newark earlier this year, Pierce filled out his first voter registration form in more than a quarter of a century.

“Voting has value to the soul,” an emotional Pierce said. “At this moment, my soul is soaring.”

• See related article: Thousands Of Former NJ Prison Inmates Can Now Register To Vote

Pierce isn’t alone in his jubilation. Since the law took effect, scores of other former prisoners and people with convictions have shared stories of “how they got their voices back” with the NJISJ.

Watch some of them speak below, and see the full collection of videos here. Learn more about voter registration and the new law here.

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