“I think having that mistake showed me that anyone could make a mistake,” said Jovan Jackson. (Campaign photo)
Shortly after his release from being incarcerated in Nevada, Jovan Jackson knew he wanted to give back and help other people impacted by the criminal justice system.
His journey started months after leaving prison in 2018, when he began door knocking and phone banking for Robert Langford’s unsuccessful challenge to incumbent Steve Wolfson in the Democratic primary for Clark County District Attorney.
“If you ask me, the most important campaign and election is the district attorney’s election,” Jackson said in a recent interview. “The district attorney has a direct impact on how the criminal justice system operates.”
Criminal reform organizers across the country have tried to elect “progressive prosecutors” in recent years in an attempt to change who heads the district attorneys’ offices. Under new leadership, they hope criminal justice systems in cities and counties can change how they go about prosecuting low level offenses and connecting people to non-punitive alternatives to jail.
Organizers didn’t win during the 2018 DA’s race – or an attempt in 2022 to oust Wolfson a second time – but Jackson kept advocating for reforms to the justice system.
Every election cycle he knocked doors for candidates who backed criminal justice reforms, and every legislative session he would lobby for what he believes are smarter policies that affect people impacted by the justice system.
Jackson, 32, is now all but assured to be a legislator himself. He’s running for Assembly District 6, currently held by Assemblywoman Shondra Summers-Armstrong, who opted not to seek re-election to run for Las Vegas City Council. He faces Republican Nephi Oliva and non-partisan candidate Walter Jones III.
The district is overwhelmingly Democratic and Summers-Armstrong was re-elected to her seat in 2022 with 81% of the vote.
With Jackson’s victory, he would become the first formerly incarcerated person elected to the Nevada State Legislature.
Five formerly incarcerated people have been elected to state legislatures across the country, according to a National Criminal Justice Association tally last year.
“There is absolutely a need for local, state, federal representation of formerly incarcerated,” Jackson said. “These systems of government have constantly attacked these populations and made legislation to directly make life harder for them.”
Jackson wants to end cash bail and make it easier for those released to have their records sealed. Criminal histories can often serve as a barrier to finding housing, employment and social services, which increases the likelihood of recidivism.
The Nevada Assembly Democratic Caucus didn’t endorse Jackson for AD 6, one of the few races not backed this cycle. Jackson wonders if being formerly incarcerated played a role in the decision.
Leo Villalobos, the executive director for the caucus, told Nevada Current that “we didn’t get around to endorsing” in the race, but wouldn’t elaborate.
When pointing out the caucus endorsed candidates who didn’t even have competitive primaries, Villalobos responded that those races featured incumbents.
Yet, the caucus endorsed public defender Erica Roth for Assembly District 24, who, like Jackson, isn’t an incumbent and also running in a heavily Democratic leaning district.
“When I reached out to the caucus after my primary election (win) no one reached back to me,” Jackson said. “I don’t take it personally though.”
Jackson’s race is also playing out as Vice President Kamala Harris is running against former President Donald Trump.
Harris, a former district attorney and California Attorney General, clinched the nomination shortly after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election and less than two months after Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts. Earlier in the year Trump was also found liable for sexual abuse.
Democrats quickly sought to frame the race between Harris and Trump as “the prosecutor versus the felon.”
Both national and state Democratic groups pushed campaign materials underscoring Trump as a “convicted felon.”
Jackson found the contrast hurtful and undercut the work he had done since being incarcerated.
“It sucks to know I’m constantly being punished for something I did 10 years ago,” he said.
But it’s not just him.
The messaging around people convicted of felons reduces a population of formerly incarcerated people to their criminal histories even when they’ve served their time and have been released, Jackson said.
“A felon is someone who made a mistake,” he said. “They’re trying to redeem himself and move past their mistakes and actually take accountability for this in their mistakes.”
He said there is a clear difference between a formerly incarcerated person who sought rehabilitation, served their time and was released, and Trump.
Jackson said “he’s not trying to take accountability for his mistakes.”
“He’s not trying to serve his prison sentence or whatever, parole or probation,” Jackson said. “He’s not trying to own up to his mistakes. He’s trying to be a criminal.”
‘I had to become an advocate’
When Jackson was 23, he was arrested and charged with a felony in connection to an armed robbery of a pawn shop. Prior to that, he had been arrested for a misdemeanor DUI and felony drug possession.
Jackson said the arrests were during a period of his life he was struggling with substance abuse and mental health issues.
“I tried a drug, and it changed who I was,” he said. “I became psychotic. I became delusional. I lost sight of who I was.”
He served two years for the robbery, first at High Desert State Prison and then at the Wells Conservation Camp in Elko, Nevada.
Jackson said the thing about going to prisons is it’s “the biggest mental health treatment place in Nevada.”
He got treatment, was able to rehabilitate. During his time incarcerated, he said he served fighting wildfires.
“When I first got out of incarceration, I realized I was able to rehabilitate faster than most folks, because I had employment waiting for me,” he said. “I had a home waiting for me. I had my family waiting for me. I realized that there’s a big portion of people that can’t maneuver through these boundaries when they get home from incarceration. They’re not able to get employment, or housing. I felt like I had to become an advocate for that population.”
He began organizing with the Mass Liberation Project and the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada for justice reforms.
State lawmakers passed Assembly Bill 431 in 2019, which automatically restores the right to vote once a person leaves prison. The bill received bipartisan support in the Assembly but passed on party lines with only Democrats voting for it in the Senate.
When the bill went into effect in July of that year giving an estimated 77,000 people in Nevada the ability to vote, Jackson was the first formerly incarcerated person to fill out a voter registration form.
During a press conference, to celebrate the law going into effect, Jackson, flanked by Democratic lawmakers, said the bill was a step toward giving formerly incarcerated people a voice and “we can vote against the people who are trying to oppress us.”
Jackson continued to organize and lobbied lawmakers to fix the bail system and decriminalize traffic tickets.
In 2022, Jackson unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the North Las Vegas City Council.
Though he isn’t endorsed by the Assembly caucus for his race for AD6, Jackson is endorsed by the Culinary Union and the AFL-CIO, along with progressive groups like PLAN Action and Make the Road Nevada Action.
Lawmakers are expected to debate bills in 2025 that authorize sentencing boards to review lengthy sentences, known as “second look” laws, discharge certain medical debt for those in prison upon release, and whether to allow automated traffic enforcement.
As the state considers what justice reforms to pursue and how those laws are written, Jackson said he intends to provide representation for those impacted by the justice system, as he has done before. But this time, it would be as a lawmaker.
“I think having that mistake showed me that anyone could make a mistake,” he said.