“We Know How to Fix the Clemency Process. So Why Don’t We?”

The title of this post is the headline of this new New York Times essay authored by Rachel Barkow and Mark Osler.  As with everything authored by these two professors, this piece should be read in full.  Here are excerpts:

The fundamental problem with having the Justice Department run clemency is that prosecutors aren’t good at it.  Under the department’s regulations, the Office of the Pardon Attorney must give “considerable weight” to the opinions of local prosecutors — the very people who sought the sentence in the first place.

These prosecutors typically don’t keep up with the people they prosecuted to learn what they’ve been doing while incarcerated or what their post-prison re-entry plans look like.  Their data point is the conviction itself, so their analysis of the case is frozen in time. No matter the intent from on high, it is hard to get around this obstacle.

Vice President Harris, a former prosecutor herself, has warned of “inherent conflicts of interest” in the current process. Justice Department lawyers, she argued during her campaign, should not determine whether people convicted by colleagues in the legal system should have their sentences shortened or commuted….

The faulty architecture of clemency has been apparent for decades, with shamefully low grant rates from presidents of both parties.  If the administration put in place a competent advisory board to process petitions instead of relying on the Justice Department’s flawed and biased process, it could address the backlog, just as a board addressed the huge backlog of petitions for clemency from draft evaders in the wake of the Vietnam War.

The board should include experts in rehabilitation, re-entry and prison records, including a person who has been incarcerated.  It would be able to consult with the Justice Department, but the department would no longer be responsible for the decision itself.  This will allow the board to make objective recommendations; then it will be up to the president whether to accept them.

The Biden administration understands the value of expertise and process.  Justice is the last place where an exception should be made.