On Wednesday, Sarasota Magazine associate editor Isaac Eger and Demetrius Jifunza, a past Unity Award winner, were guests on Justice Matters, a monthly radio segment organized by Legal Aid of Manasota and hosted by WSLR 96.5. The subject matter was Amendment 4, and the recent spate of voter arrests in Florida.

Approved by more than 60 percent of Florida voters in 2018, Amendment 4 granted an estimated 1.4 million former felons the right to vote, but the measure has since faced multiple legislative and legal battles over its implemetation. In August, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the arrest of 20 people who had allegedly voted illegally in the 2020 election, and video surfaced of those arrests to much public outrage.

Sarasota Magazine has covered the fight for the right to vote over the years. In 2020, we accompanied a former felon as she voted for the first time. We also covered the recent voter arrests that threaten to scare people away from the polls.

Jifunza, the founder of the Sarasota chapter of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, was deeply involved in the passage of Amendment 4. On this week's show, he spoke about continuing to fight for the constitutional rights of Florida citizens and emphasized his concern that the recent arrests are a tactic to instill fear in people and prevent them from exercising their right to vote.

"These arrests put panic and fear in people," Jifunza said. "So many individuals contacted me and said, ‘I’m not voting. Look at what happened to these individuals here.’"

Listen to the show in its entirety here: 

Listen to Justice Matters on WSLR 96.5 at 9:30 a.m. every third Wednesday of the month. To find out if you or someone you know qualifies to have your rights restored, visit floridarrc.com.