If a person got caught, got convicted, served their sentence, shouldn't that be the end
of it?
Reporter Jacob Wheeler: The Second Chance Coalition, co-founded by Sarah Walker, is
blazing a trail for Minnesotans with criminal records who are reentering society and seek
jobs, housing and the right to vote.
Four years ago, thanks to a spirited lobbying effort, and the annual Day on the Hill, when
ex-felons make their case to lawmakers, the coalition successfully pushed the state legislature
to ban public employers from requiring criminal convictions and arrest records on job applications.
Ban the box.
Sarah Walker: Having a Day on the Hill and hosting community forums, it serves a purpose
to move the conversation.
But it also provides individuals an opportunity to share their own experience.
Reporter: Walker has been an advocate for ex-offenders ever since she wrote a paper
as a student at Carleton College, which argued that modern-day incarceration and parole is
akin to a form of slavery.
There is a huge racial dynamic in who's incarcerated.
Minnesota has the second highest racial disparity in the criminal justice system.
One in five African-American men are denied the right to vote in Minnesota based on a
felony conviction.
The criminal justice system has come to represent the nexus of all our institutional failures.
It's where, if you have not received adequate education, adequate mental health services,
you face racial discrimination.
Basically, all of those cumulative disparities come together in the criminal justice system.
Reporter: Walker seemed destined to embrace activism to combat disparities within society.
She was born in Zambia to an African father and white mother.
When she was three they moved to Chicago and settled in a deeply segregated neighborhood.
There she saw firsthand the pain of racial disparities.
That experience was reinforced when, in 2005, she moved her cancer stricken mother to a
hospital in New Orleans just before Hurricane Katrina arrived.
Walker's mom died as residents scrambled to leave the city, and New Orleans became the
nation's modern-day poster child for painful racial inequality.
Walker: Seeing just the blatant failure at response and the racial dynamics associated
with it.
That experience, after I came back to my graduate work, I honestly fundamentally felt that I
had to do something tangible.
Reporter: In order to break down barriers, and promote understanding between urban youth
and police departments Walker has helped arrange canoe trips for the two groups.
This year, Walker is lobbying lawmakers to "Ban the Box" for private employers as well.
The "box" currently appears on job applications and asks job seekers whether or not they have
a criminal record.
On April 20, the Minnesota Senate passed "Ban the Box" for private employers, by a bipartisan
vote of 44-16.
The measure now moves to the House.
The Coalition is also pushing to seal juvenile records, and ultimately, to restore voting
rights for ex-felons, once they've done their time.
In Minnesota, if you have a felony conviction, and if you are on probation, parole or in
prison, you're not allowed to vote.
And we fundamentally believe that you should be able to vote if you are living in the community.
So as long as you're not incarcerated, you should be able to vote."
People are returning, and they're becoming part of our civic and civil community, and
that they need to be treated like citizens.
Whether or not you come at it from a social justice angle or a fiscally conservative angle,
there is some reason why you should be caring about the system.
It costs $35,000 a year to incarcerate a male adult in Minnesota.
Reporter: Walker's work has empowered ex-offenders like Marvin Clark, who was in and out of prison
for six years for drug offenses, and is now a leader at Emerge in North Minneapolis, which
helps people who were once in his shoes reenter society.
I'm an ex-career criminal, I'm an ex-drug addict.
It will be 17 years this June of being out of prison.
Today I'm the director of housing.
Emerge prides itself on giving a person a hand up, and not a hand out.
And the best reward is to see someone finally make it."
OK, so what if I made some mistakes yesterday.
That's not who I am today.
And I think that's what Sarah sees too.
Reporter: It's a myth that felons in Minnesota are mostly urban black men.
In fact, most ex-offenders are Caucasians from greater Minnesota.
People like Rob Stewart, who did two years for drug offenses, and is now getting his
Master's degree in Sociology, with a focus on criminal justice, at the University of
Minnesota."
In 2006 I received my first felony drug charge: in 2007 I received a more severe felony drug
charge, and I served two years in prison.
It was difficult to find a job.
Seven to eight years ago, no one was talking about these issues.
No one was talking about criminal justice reform.
No one was talking about felon voting rights.
They're gonna have opportunities to get jobs and put these criminal offenses behind them
and move on with their lives —opportunities that they wouldn't have if it weren't for
Sarah Walker, if it weren't for the Second Chance Coalition.
Reporter: Through her charisma, passion and lawyer-like grasp of the issues, Sarah Walker
has appealed to, and changed minds, on both sides of the political aisle.
Republicans, such as Senator David Senjem, routinely speak on the Coalition's Day on
the Hill.
Who's never made a mistake in life, you know?
Raise your hand, because, there aren't many of us.
All of these people are going to get out of prison, get out of jail, whatever the case
might be.
They're all going to, in fact, be citizens, and we gotta make life right for them.
Reporter: And she has convinced conservatives like Sen. Dave Thompson that criminal justice
reform, and re-enfranchising ex-felons, makes fiscal sense too.
Sarah approached me, I gave it some thought, and I realized, you know, if a person is released
from prison and they have to presumably pay taxes if they get a job, which we want them
to do, I see no good reason why they should not be allowed to vote.
We should think about our criminal justice system just like we think about our school
system, our economic system or anything else.
And that is, do the right thing as effectively and efficiently as possible.
If less people need to be incarcerated because we're over-incarcerating for relatively minor
offenses, then we need to put less people away.
Most religions, whether Christian or otherwise, have some element of redemption.
And I think that a sense of human fundamental fairness says 'look, all of us have come short
and failed in one way or another, and that should not impact the rest of our lives'.
Reporter: Walker's lobbying work isn't confined to the State Capitol.
She has also worked hard to find allies in city government too.
She has one in Saint Paul City Councilman Melvin Carter, who has promised to Ban the
Box in the City if the State doesn't do it first.
Melvin Carter: We bring somebody back into our community and say 'we want you to be a
productive member of society.
... 'Oh but you can't live here, you can't vote here and you can't work here'.
Well then, what's a productive member of society?
We've got a Ban the Box ordinance here that we're gonna be ready to move forward, should
the state not act for some reason.
I think some people work a job, and some people pursue a mission.
Sarah is clearly passionate about the work that she does.
Anybody who knows Sarah Walker knows that she is relentless and doesn't give up.
She's very passionate about these issues, and she doesn't ever let them go.
And that's what Sarah's out there fighting for.
You know, she's fighting for the little guy.