To us, he’s our Board Treasurer who never misses a meeting. But Jeff Brown is better known as the founder and CEO of Brown’s Super Stores, a network of ShopRite and Fresh Grocer Supermarkets in the Philly region intentionally located in “food deserts,” serving low-income communities, and giving well over 500 people their first jobs after leaving prison.
Thank you, Mr. Brown, for your continued commitment to the community. You are, for all of us, the definition of commitment, leadership, and social action.
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The arrest and death of George Floyd and the protests that followed in Philadelphia and elsewhere (and how they were handled by the police) have caused lots of people to reach out and ask what they can do to help PLSE.
Click here
for some ideas. And thanks very much for caring.
Social Change Requires Social Action!
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The Problem, and The Opportunity, At a Glance
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For decades, Pennsylvania has been in the top 5 of states with the highest numbers of people arrested, convicted, and confined in prisons. In fact, PA’s incarceration rate has been higher than that of every country in the world, including the US. And you probably won’t be surprised to learn that Philadelphia has the highest rates of all the counties in PA. The recent
Economy League study
demonstrated the millions of dollars that could flow to our state’s low-income communities if only more pardons were allowed.
But deep in the report’s numbers were these jaw-dropping facts about how few Philadelphians have even applied for pardons:
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On average, just 63 Philadelphians per year even apply for a pardon.
By contrast, there are tens of thousands of Philadelphians who have turned their lives around since they were “justice-involved” and now merit a pardon.
Thanks to the commitment of the Board of Pardons to make pardons accessible, the process is free and relatively straightforward – and each of us can help. Just don’t sit there being upset by what you’re seeing.
Do something
.
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Philly DA Accelerates Review of PLSE Pardon Applications
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The Board of Pardons (BOP) sends every application for pardon to the county where the conviction was obtained, for review and comment by the District Attorney’s Office (DAO). A positive recommendation from the county DA goes a very long way to increase the chance for a pardon; but historically, the DAs’ input has been given very late in the process.
Thanks to an agreement reached late last month between the Philly DAO and the BOP, Philly’s DAO will now be reviewing pardon applications from PLSE at the very start of the process – as soon as it has received its “Application Number,” which happens when it’s received by the BOP in the mail.
This will result in the BOP receiving the Philadelphia DA’s input as much as two years earlier than it now does!
Why the change? Three reasons.
- As PA Labor & Industry Secretary Gerard Oleksiak recently said, helping people “getting past those histories is key to Pennsylvania’s economic future,”
- Philly’s DAO shares the hope that people who have earned a second chance will be pardoned by the Governor as soon as they possibly can.
- The BOP has called people who fit PLSE’s eligibility criteria “the best candidates for pardon”: their convictions do not involve sex or serious violence, many years have passed since their sentence was successfully completed, and they can show they’ve turned their lives around and deserve a second chance.
PLSE is emailing its volunteers about how to trigger this new process to help their clients. If you are willing to volunteer to help a PLSE pardon client,
contact us
.
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Spread the Word: Online Intake is Open!
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PLSE has always been based in Philadelphia’s low-income/high-arrest neighborhoods – bringing our information and services directly to those who need them. This began in the basement of Enon Baptist Tabernacle Church on February 5, 2011. Thanks to our growing number of community partners and events, we conducted intakes in two dozen Philly neighborhoods in 2019. But COVID-19 put an end to all that.
It’s an easy and fast way to get started on expunging your records in court or seeking a pardon from the Governor. If you don’t meet our income guidelines, we can still give you advice and refer you to lawyers and resources you can use.
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This Month's Tip: The Parole Agent Interview (shared by a current pardon applicant)
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Before the Board of Pardons decides whether anyone gets a hearing on a pardon application, the applicant has to be interviewed by a parole agent. In May, one of our clients had his interview. Here are some key “lessons learned” he shared with us:
About the interview:
- The letter told me to expect the interview within 3-4 months; it actually took 5 months.
- The interviewer called me on the phone to schedule the review, and that made it easy for us to coordinate.
- The interview was done by phone, and lasted about 50 minutes.
- The agent was professional and respectful; his style was not confrontational - almost conversational – and I found it easy to discuss the details of my case with him.
- The questions that he asked were in line with the form they sent out. Since I had prepared the information ahead of time, I was able to give him the information he wanted.
- On some questions, I could not remember the exact information, and he told me that was “okay.”
My recommendations:
- Get your information ready ahead of time. I got the papers ready and had answers in a document that I had my Pardon Coaches (students from Penn Law’s Pardon Project) help me put together.
- Practice ahead of time. I had done a mock interview two days before the real one that got me ready and served to keep me sharp. The fact of being prepared really helped me be confident going in and stay focused during the interview.
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Penn Law Honors Hallisey (’20), Oxholm (HF’93) for Leadership of Penn’s Pardon Project
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PLSE was introduced to Penn Law School’s student-run Pardon Project in 2018, when PLSE was just getting started in pardons. Over the next 15 months, the relationship blossomed. By the spring of 2020, Penn Law students were attending most of PLSE’s community expungement intake programs and providing information about pardons to attendees, and they were partnering with several of PLSE’s Pardon Hubs, supporting the work of their volunteers.
Last month, the
Toll Public Interest Center
honored graduating law student
Maura Hallisey
– Co-President of Penn Law’s Pardon Project – as a Volunteer of the Year for her exceptional service:
she volunteered more than 200 hours while at law school!
The Center also recognized PLSE ED Tobey Oxholm as a Supervisor of the Year.
PLSE looks forward to expanding its relationship with Penn’s Pardon Project in the coming years, and to use it as a model for developing Pardon Projects at other law schools in the region and across the state.
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Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity
1501 Cherry Street Philadelphia, PA 19102
(267) 519-5323
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