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Thousand of people leave Florida prisons every year, but only 500 or fewer cases a year come before the state clemency board. Just 81 cases were on today’s agenda, but  today also saw a protest over the process Florida uses to restore rights.

As the hearing was in progress several dozen black shirted silent  protestors arrived. They are part of a growing movement that believes once someone has done the time, rights should be restored automatically.

Lashanna Tyson of Faith in Florida led the effort. She served ten years for what she called being in the wrong place at the wrong time and has not had her rights restored.

“If you can’t get a job when you come home, you don’t have nothing. What do you have to do if you can’t get in college, if you can’t get in school or anywhere to stay, what else is there for you to do. They want people to go back, and we want to empower people that you don;’t have to accept that.”

Florida has had an on again, off again practice of automatically restoring rights. When the Governor and Cabinet were elected in 2011, the first thing they did was abolish the automatic restoration of civil rights.