Voting Rights Complaint In Alabama

MONTGOMERY, ALA. (CN) - The Alabama state prison system is violating voting rights by refusing to let a minister enter prisons and help inmates register to vote, the Rev. Kenneth Glasgow claims in Federal Court. Inmates can vote in Alabama if they were not convicted of felonies involving moral turpitude, Glasgow says.

Glasgow, 43, "is a formerly incarcerated person whose voting rights were restored in 2004 following his petition to the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles," he says. Glasgow is black. He says he founded The Ordinary People Society, in Dothan, a nonprofit, nonpartisan "faith-based ministry," to reduce recidivism and help restore people with criminal convictions to society by, among other things, voting.

He says his work with the ministry got him named the "Dothan Man of the Year" twice, and a "Lyndon Baines Johnson Award."

Glasgow claims he was allowed to visit prisons until Sept. 18, when defendant Commissioner Richard Allen barred him. Glasgow claims that violates the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act. He demands a restraining order and injunction.He is represented by Herman Johnson of Birmingham

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