As Director of the Full Citizens Coalition (FCC) and Director of Dwight Hall’s New Haven Civic Allyship Initiative, James Jeter has spent the past seven years working to end felony disenfranchisement to ensure that all citizens are able to participate in electoral democracy as full citizens.
Joining FCC was a way for James to combat injustice that he had become intimately familiar with. “I was a policy analyst for a community development financial institution as my first real job out of prison,” he explained. “It was a frustrating job because I was learning so much about how policies were affecting health outcomes rooted in housing disparities, food disparities, under-banking in [certain] communities, and how those things were structured. Spending a lot of time at the legislative office building allowed me to see that there was an absence of those who come from communities that are highly impacted by [these unjust] policies.”
James and Kennard Ray (the original founder of FCC) began with the mission to re-enfranchise–that is, restore voting rights to–individuals with felony convictions who were currently on parole. This population included James, who was released from prison into the parole system in 2016.
Unlike Kennard, who had been out of prison for a decade by the time FCC was established, James had only recently been released. As such, he offered a unique perspective on the advocacy work of the organization. “I did a lot of prison time, and so prison had impacted me a little differently,” James said. “I grew up in prison without any breaks, without coming home. So I was still closely tied to a lot of men in prison.”
In addition to the original goal of restoring voting rights to individuals with felony convictions who had been released from prison and were now on parole, which became law in Connecticut in 2021, James also began helping those he knew who had been previously incarcerated, “if it was guys coming home needing to find jobs, I would help them find jobs… or guys asking me to assist them with letters and help them plan their reentry strategies or their commutations or [help with] their problems on parole.”
Soon, James’s unofficial work became a larger part of the FCC’s mission. “It was just help that would naturally come out of us and slowly we started taking on other parts of what we are today,” he described. FCC has since expanded beyond felony disenfranchisement to advocate for commutations in sentencing and against wrongful convictions.
FCC also addresses criminal justice issues that are overlooked by many large legal advocacy groups, such as helping individuals prepare for pretrial cases. FCC has filmed two docuseries: Welcome to the Front Line, which is a seven-part YouTube docuseries about reentry from prison, and Free Maleek, which focuses on the wrongful conviction of Maleek Jones in New Haven.
In addition to FCC’s advocacy work, James holds workshops to educate audiences about voter registration, historical disenfranchisement, and how to effect meaningful political change. While James acknowledged that FCC receives more requests for workshops and outreach around the election season, he emphasized that advocacy should not be contained to a single season every four years. Instead, FCC works year-round.
Looking forward, James hopes to expand FCC’s outreach to college students, particularly through workshops on the history of disenfranchisement. “Being able to step into that arena and get college students to think through the world that they are inheriting, the world that they will mold, and not have them wait—I look forward to booking more events and partnering with colleges and student groups.”
James also emphasized the sheer power of young people in America and in New Haven. If all young people voted locally, according to James, they would have enormous influence on local politics, reshaping the landscape of New Haven and Yale.
He explained how if students organized around a set of demands, their power to effect change would be massive. “Over the next four years, here are the 10 things we are going to pass that will benefit everybody…let us tackle holes over the next four years. Let us create the agenda, and let us elect somebody to fulfill our agenda.”
Further, James described how to make the work students begin today long-lasting. “How do we own [that power] over the next decade?” he asked. “I think that should be an inspiration for college students to say, ‘I’m 18 to 22. By the time I’m 28 to 32 I can be living in the America that I want to see, and I can actually do it.’… I look forward to working closely with our young adults as they begin to actually conceptualize the power of their presence and vote,” James said.
Dwight Hall has been instrumental in supporting FCC’s advocacy and educational work. “Dwight Hall is extremely helpful and hands-on,” James affirmed. “The Hall has become a good sounding board for our proposals and ideas and a really great support. I cannot see us here without that support.”
Additionally, Dwight Hall’s Civic Allyship Initiative, founded by James, elevates the existing work of community organizers in New Haven and beyond. The program confronts complex social challenges, convening criminal justice advocates, grassroots activists, currently and formerly incarcerated people, students, and professors in equitable relationships through workshops, trainings, and research. Together, these allies are supporting the work of FCC, utilizing new grassroots organizing strategies, developing opportunities for underrepresented populations in civic leadership, and laying the groundwork for substantive policy reforms.
For those interested in student advocacy, James emphasized he is always eager to discuss how to convert advocacy into lasting change. “Academia has outlasted all student protests,” he explained. “They have adjusted their algorithm to absorb whatever is thrown at it without changing, right? That can end, and we can talk about how to get away from some of the more academic thoughts and get communal.”
The work of FCC and the New Haven Civic Allyship Initiative embody the Advance pillar of Dwight Hall’s Engage, Grow, and Advance program delivery model. Using innovative, community-oriented work, FCC seeks to effect positive and long-lasting change across Connecticut and the nation.
For those interested in FCC, Civic Allyship, or student advocacy, James can be reached at james.jeter@yale.edu or j.jeter@fullcitizenscoalition.org.
More Groups and Programs
About the Author
