A growing chorus of voices is calling for President Biden to continue advancing a broad clemency agenda by commuting the sentences of people serving disproportionately long federal prison terms. As 2024 comes to a close, join us in honoring the promise of second chances and beginning again.

Friends,

As this year comes to an end, I write to focus on something good and real happening right now. 

You’ve all seen the headlines: last week President Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people on home confinement, ensuring they can live and work in their communities without the threat of unnecessary re-incarceration. A good and important move. These were people already vetted and released under the Trump Administration who had gone years without incident and who did not need to be living with the limitations and fears of house arrest. The White House tells us we can expect more clemency action in the final weeks before the President leaves office. We really hope so.

The conversation around clemency and pardons—who gets them and who doesn’t—has many angles to it. The cynics abound, and I get it. Coming out of this chaotic political season, I have more Grinch in me than I like to admit. It’s hard right now not to shrink into ourselves, assume the worst, look for the downside, spiral about the risks… but good things happen when we believe we can begin again. 

In the past few weeks, both before and after the recent clemency grants, a growing chorus has called on President Biden to focus his clemency power on the too-large group of people serving disproportionately long and racially disparate sentences in federal prison. 

Here are conservative groups calling for the President to use clemency to reduce incarceration without compromising public safety. Here are civil rights organizations urging him to take additional action to bring people home and rectify unjust and inequitable sentences. Here are labor leaders—including the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, AFT, APWU, UMWA, NEA, CWA, and SEIU—joining the call and highlighting the importance of clemency in boosting local economies by bringing people home and back into the workforce. Representative Horsford, Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, submitted a letter on behalf of the CBC, joining other leaders in the House and Senate calling for the President to be generous in granting clemency to people serving long federal sentences.

And, finally, here is a letter from people who previously received clemency on what clemency meant for their lives, their families, and their communities, and why the President should do much more of it.

You can watch our own clemency ad here:

I've said before that it's not presidents or would-be presidents who pay the price for over-criminalization and mass incarceration. But presidents can do a lot to address the injustices undermining the criminal justice system.

The federal prison population sits just shy of 158,000, making it the largest prison system in the country. It is plagued by staggering racial disparities. Thousands of people in federal prisons are still serving sentences that would not be handed down today due to changes we have made to law and practice including reforms like those made to address the crack/powder cocaine disparity or the changes to long and life sentences under the First Step Act. For the most part, these important reforms impacted people sentenced after them. Thousands of people sentenced before these reforms are still being punished based on old laws and out-of-date thinking. We know better now, and it's long past time that we do something about it. 

There are thousands of commutation applications awaiting presidential action. President Biden’s decisions should be guided by the recommendations of the Pardon Attorney, which are informed by a vigorous vetting and investigation, to ensure a fair, thorough, and transparent process. There is overwhelming public support for clemency—no matter which candidate they supported in the recent election, 80% or more of voters supported increasing commutations when polled in October.

We have a lot of rebuilding to do in 2025. As this year comes to a close, I hope you’ll join us and many others in calling on the President to extend second chances to people serving these out-of-date prison sentences and, in doing so, include them in what we build on the other side.

Zoë Towns

Executive Director, FWD.us

P.S. If you’re looking to round out your holiday gifting, consider donating to the newly launched Inside Impact Fund, which invests directly in good ideas—a book club, a support group for fathers—developed by and for people in prison.