"Sixteen percent of all adult African Americans in Virginia (including 25% of black males) cannot vote due to a felony conviction."

Treating former felons differently than others isn't racism, no matter what quote Spencer Overton reads me from over a century ago. A serious crime in a person's past should be and is held against them for the rest of their lives, by law, everywhere. Sometimes it's just held against them once they commit another crime, and sometimes it's held against them when they seek a certain job, but it's common sense that you should consider a person's past actions in giving them rights, whether or not it's a criminal past, but especially if it is.

I'm sure you can find statistics that show that people with no serious criminal records are better people in every measurable way than those with serious criminal records. Taking away the right to vote for the entire life of someone who's committed a serious crime is an inexpensive way to protect society.

Anyway, the amount of time a person should receive a form of punishment depends on the punishment. There's nothing wrong with a combination of punishments, each of which lasts for different lengths of time.