Bruce Reilly

Deputy Director

​​Bruce Reilly, is Deputy Director of both VOTE, and Voters Organized to Educate. He is a writer, and founding member of the Formerly Incarcerated, Convicted People and Families Movement (FICPFM). Bruce provides expert analysis on discrimination in employment, housing, and voting rights. Originally born into foster care, he found his identity as a young jailhouse lawyer for his 12 years in prison before his parole. Bruce put his knowledge to work by joining Direct Action for Rights & Equality in 2005, and played a vital role in passing significant criminal justice reforms, such as the restoration of voting rights, eliminating mandatory minimums, statewide Ban the Box, the Good Samaritan Overdose Prevention Act, unshackling incarcerated pregnant women, and probation violation reform. In 2011, Bruce moved to New Orleans to team up with VOTE and enroll in Tulane Law School, despite having no undergrad degree. He graduated in 2014. Bruce co-founded Transcending Through Education Foundation (TTEF) with two friends who also entered prison at a young age, and earned law degrees after being released.

He is the author of "Communities, Evictions, and Criminal Convictions," a foundational report on public housing, and “The Racial History of Felon Disenfranchisement in Louisiana,” which served as a key building block to VOTE v. Louisiana and the re-enfranchisement of 40,000 people, including himself.​

Bruce serves on the board of All Square, a reentry/restaurant program in Minneapolis; Power Coalition; the Institutional Review Boards for Tulane University, and American Institutes of Research; and advisory board of Prison Policy Initiative. Bruce previously served on the National Clean Slate Clearinghouse Advisory Committee, founding steering committees for Unanimous Jury Coalition, People's D.A. Coalition, and Louisianans for Prison Alternatives. Bruce is currently a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Interdisciplinary Research Leader, and had a prior career as an artist, lighting designer, DJ, and theatre director.