Highlighting the Work of our Voting Rights Public Engagement Intern – Joseph Dole!

Chicago Lawyers’ Committee had the great opportunity of working with Joseph Dole on voting rights initiatives, specifically carceral voting initiatives, in 2023 and 2024. Joseph served as a public engagement intern with our Midwest Voting Rights team. We are grateful to have been able to provide this opportunity to Joseph in collaboration with the National Public Housing Museum.  

Joseph is currently serving a Life-Without-Parole sentence for a crime he did not commit. He is a published writer, artist, and activist, has been incarcerated for over 20 years, and spent a decade in the notorious TAMMS supermax prison. He has a BA from Northeastern Illinois University and has been published by Truthout, Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy, Justice, Power & Resistance, among many others. He is co-founder and policy director of Parole Illinois, a 501c3 non-profit organization working to abolish death-by-incarceration.  

Throughout this internship, Joseph focused on voting rights and worked closely with our Director of Midwest Voting Rights Program, Ami Gandhi. Joseph’s work supported our advocacy efforts around the re-enfranchisement of incarcerated community members. He also worked on projects to lay the groundwork for strengthened civic engagement, voter participation, and political empowerment of incarcerated and returning communities.  

To learn more about Joseph and his advocacy around restoring voting rights to incarcerated individuals, click here and read his op-ed featured in Truthout. Stay tuned for more information about our collaborations.