Here at Shawangunk Correctional Facility, a small maximum security prison in upstate New York, I am part of a nine-month reentry program called Project Build. Every Friday morning, we gather around long, wooden tables and talk about who we were when we committed our crimes, and who we are striving to become. Last year, I had the opportunity to attend the graduation for the 2024-2025 group. At the event, one of the speakers, who was formerly incarcerated, informed the crowd that we — the nation’s past and present prisoners — were “civilly dead.” I wasn’t familiar with the concept, but I was intrigued to learn more. Civil death ensures that prisoners and felons are stripped of basic rights, like voting, that are otherwise granted to them by the Constitution. They can live in a democracy, but cannot participate. After the Civil War, these rules were enshrined in the Constitution by way of the 14th and 15th Amendments. Slavery was over, but the yoke of racism and oppression was still intact. Although New York and other states have restored voting rights to people on parole and o