How about Prez Biden and lots of Governors starting a tradition of granting lots of clemencies around Mother’s Day?

May 9, 2021

The question in the title of this post is prompted by my persistent eagerness to see a lot more clemency activity from chief executives and also by this new story out of Illinois headlined “Protesters deliver Mother’s Day card to Pritzker’s house, demand release of incarcerated loved ones.” Here are excerpts:

Against a backdrop of bright pink tulips, protesters stood outside Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Gold Coast home on Friday with flowers, signs and a painted piece of cardboard that read, “Dear J.B., on this Mother’s Day, set our loved ones free.” That oversized Mother’s Day card included demands that Pritzker sign clemency petitions to for prisoners they say have been wrongfully incarcerated and that he stop construction of a new youth prison at the Lincoln Developmental Center.

Denice Bronis, an Elgin resident and member of Mamas Activating Movements for Abolition and Solidarity, said her son Matthew Echevarria, in prison for 22 years after being convicted of murder, contracted COVID-19 at Menard Correctional Center and still exhibits long-term symptoms. “Mother’s Day is just as much a day of love as it is a day of pain, especially for those who have experienced forced separation from our children, our loved ones, by the state,” Bronis said….

Kiah Sandler, a Bronzeville resident with the End IL Prison Lockdown Coalition, said although the group’s demands have shifted since Pritzker signed a sweeping criminal justice reform bill, there is still work to be done by the governor. Sandler said the coalition is asking Pritzker to lift that ban on personal contact during in-person visits, and also to grant more clemency requests to “set loved ones free with the stroke of a pen.”…

A Pritzker spokesperson later sent an email stating Pritzker has granted clemency requests throughout the pandemic and the state prison population is at its lowest level in years — down 28% since 2019, including a 43% drop in female inmates.

Holly Krig, a member of Moms United Against Violence and Incarceration, said it is “horrific and cruelly unnecessary,” that visitors and incarcerated people are not allowed to touch and also that visitors must be vaccinated; that means children under 16 — who can’t be vaccinated yet — can’t visit. She said for younger children and newborns to maintain a relationship with incarcerated mothers, contact is essential. “People can be released, people should be released and they should be released immediately,” Krig said. “We need to bring our people home.”

As highlighted by recent polling discussed here, granting clemency to various groups of persons has considerable public support across the political spectrum. Focusing particularly on reuniting families though commutations and restoring rights through pardons on Mother’s Day could be a big political winner.

A few prior recent related posts: