SPECIAL EDITION: CALL TO ACTION!   
May 9, 2022 
Board of Pardons Asks For Our Help With FY2023 Budget
“We are a government agency and we were not invited to testify [at the budget hearings].”
-Celeste Trusty, Secretary, Pennsylvania Board of Pardons, March 9, 2022

Thanks to the many reforms that have been achieved in the pardon forms and process, the number of applications is WAY up. … but so is the wait time: it’s now taking 16 months to go from “received” to “filed” -- and the backlog is now over 2000, and growing by the day.

“The staff burden is incredible. We do everything we can to get the applications through. There are just not enough staff. We could triple our staff and then have a system where applications don’t sit on the shelf.”

The Board’s budget is buried in the budget for the Department of Corrections (DOC). Its proposed budget of $2.27 million is less than 1% of the DOC’s budget, confirming the intense focus on punishment, neglecting the millions of dollars that pardons return to our communities every year. 

“So how can you help? You can write to your legislators. The only way we are going to be able to hire more staff is if we get more money.”
It takes just 2 minutes to add your voice to the call for second chances.

Because Social Justice Requires Social Action
Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity
230 S. Broad Street, Suite 1102, Philadelphia PA 19102
(267) 519-5323