Strikes me this article on Biden’s clemency plan is extremely disappointing for several reasons. nytimes.com/2021/05/17/us/…
Most critically: Biden says that he’s going to let prosecutors at DOJ who prosecuted these cases make decisions on who deserves clemency. This is a TERRIBLE idea. It relies on people who committed a vast injustice to admit their error and fix it, rather than an outsider.
The process is also EXTREMELY bureaucratic and difficult for most incarcerated people/formerly incarcerated people to navigate.
Also at a time when Congress is a roadblock to nearly all of Biden’s priorities, he is going to wait until his SECOND year to begin use a completely unrestrained, unchecked power that he could be using weekly? Absolutely insane.
Furthermore, the focus on nonviolent drug offenses, ignores that there are tons of people who committed violent offenses who are rehabilitated and deserve clemency. Governors in many states (LA, OR, CA, PA) have recognized clemency shouldn’t be only for the nonviolent.
This point is absolutely key and deserves more attention. Few people did more than Biden to construct excessively punitive federal laws that led to mass incarceration. He has a moral obligation to use his unchecked clemency power to address the VAST injustice he caused.
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