“Jon Yount: A Man Transformed” on the Dissent Magazine website

James Kilgore and Teresa Barnes have written a great tribute to Jon E. Yount, a jailhouse lawyer and civil rights crusader.

by Leah Sakala, June 11, 2012

James Kilgore and Teresa Barnes have written a great tribute to Jon E. Yount, a jailhouse lawyer and civil rights crusader, on the Dissent Magazine website.

In their piece, entitled “Jon Yount: A Man Transformed,” the authors highlight some of Jon’s major civil rights accomplishments, writing that,

his story provides confirmation of the irrationality of a criminal justice system that refuses to accept that individuals who have fallen can change dramatically and make important contributions to society.

Jon was on the Prison Policy Initiative Advisory Board, and as the article explains, he was the first person to link the harm from the Census Bureau’s practice of counting incarcerated people as residents of the prison location with vote dilution in state legislative districts.

To read more about this remarkable man and his work, check out Peter Wagner’s “In memory of Jon E. Yount (1938-2012)”, or check out our page of articles by and about Jon Yount.