Alabama Arise believes in dignity, equity and justice for all. We believe in an Alabama where everyone's voice is heard and everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential. And we believe better public policies are the key to building a brighter future for our state.

Below, we'll share some details of that vision with you before the Alabama Legislature's regular session begins March 7. Today's email will focus on four crucial policy priorities on our 2023 roadmap to change: eliminating the death penalty, reining in criminal justice debt, expanding voting rights and reforming payday and title lending. We discussed our other priorities — untaxing groceries, funding public transportation and affordable housing, and expanding Medicaid — in a previous email. You can read more about them here.

With your help, we can turn our shared vision for a better Alabama into reality. If you aren't yet an Arise individual member, please become one today. And if you're already a member, please encourage your friends to join our movement for change as well. Together, we can build a better Alabama!

Arise 2023: Expand voting rights to move Alabama beyond its anti-democratic past

Alabamians seeking to exercise their fundamental right to vote often face numerous administrative hurdles and physical and procedural barriers. Recent legislative sessions have included repeated attempts to make voting more inconvenient for Alabamians and more burdensome for election officials. Lawmakers should turn instead to a range of policy options to protect and strengthen voting rights.

Arise 2023: Suspending driver’s licenses for unpaid traffic tickets creates major barriers to economic health

In many parts of Alabama, access to a valid driver’s license and car is often the only way a person can see to their basic needs. Suspending someone’s driver’s license because of unpaid traffic tickets or failure to appear in court for an unpaid ticket means they can’t drive to work to earn the money to pay that ticket — or to provide for their families. They can’t drive to medical appointments. And they can’t drive to pick up their kids from school.

Lawmakers have numerous policy solutions available to help repair a court system that traps many Alabamians in debt. Alabamians deserve a justice system that helps people remain in society and doesn’t squeeze every cent from people with limited resources. 

Arise 2023: Alabama's death penalty practices remain unjust and unusually cruel

Americans increasingly oppose the death penalty. Gallup found that opposition to the death penalty more than doubled in the past 25 years. This may result from disturbingly high error rates in the system. For every 10 people executed since 1976, one innocent person on death row has been set free.

Alabama took an important step toward death penalty reform in 2017 by ending a practice that allowed judges to impose a death sentence despite a jury’s recommendation otherwise. But the state’s death penalty scheme remains broken.

Arise 2023: Payday lending harms families and communities across Alabama

Every year, underregulated payday lenders drain tens of millions of dollars from Alabama communities. These financial predators use some of that money to pay a fleet of lobbyists and fund legislative campaigns against reform. They have preserved the status quo even though nearly three in four Alabamians support abolishing predatory payday loans.

Payday lenders are on track to pull about $1 billion in fees out of Alabama communities over the next decade. Nearly all of their profits will flow to out-of-state companies. And these profits come out of the pockets of borrowers who already struggle to make ends meet. Until the Legislature acts, the scourge of predatory payday loans will continue to devastate thousands of family budgets and local economies.