civic leader, mentor, ceiling-breaker, and longtime Philadelphia Lawyer in the highest and best
sense of that accolade. We were all the better for him. May he rest in peace.
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If you’ve been wondering where we’ve been, thank you! We’ve just been so busy, here in Philly and around the state, that we’ve not had time to write! So with this edition, we hope to get our newsletter back on track, keeping you up to date with the long march to end the many harms so unthinkingly imposed simply as a result of history - criminal record histories. The coming year offers us SO many challenges and opportunities, with so many voices coming together in support of reform but the days ticking down on the tenure of the Governor and at least one, maybe two, of the five members of the Board of Pardons. But in this issue, we’re catching up with wonderful developments from all across the state..... |
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Clemency, criminal records, pardons, and expungements have been in the press of late. Here are a few articles that are well worth the read:
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Breaking News: The NEW PA Association of Pardon Projects |
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Over the past year, we’ve been working with communities all across Pennsylvania to create county-wide Pardon Projects, where neighbors can help neighbors apply for pardons. So far, there are Pardon Projects up and running in Erie, Beaver, Allegheny, Washington, Berks, Lancaster and Lackawanna; with others in different stages of development in Centre, Cumberland, Dauphin, Luzerne, Lycoming, and Wayne; and Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania has a special unit set up to help people with criminal records in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery. Representatives from all of those projects are now meeting monthly as part of the newly-formed Pennsylvania Association of Pardon Projects for updates and to share their experiences.
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... and Now there’s Malpractice Insurance for All Attorney Pardon Coaches |
While anyone (even lawyers!) can be trained as a Pardon Coach and help someone complete the application for a pardon, lawyers have ethical rules that require them to have malpractice insurance, or else tell the client that they don’t. If you’re an attorney volunteering with Allegheny County’s Pro Bono Center, or Lackawanna Pro Bono, or PLSE, or with Legal Aid, malpractice insurance comes with the referral. But what about volunteers with the other Pardon Projects? As of December 1, they’re covered, too! With thanks to Brenda Teems, PLSE’s insurance agent, the Underwriters of Lloyds and the National Association of Salaried Professionals Purchasing Group, any attorney taking pardon referrals from any member of the PA Assn of Pardon Projects is covered by primary PLI (professional liability insurance)! |
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Unlike in the civil courts where fees and costs are waived from the start for people with low-income, those costs keep getting added on for criminal defendants. They’re totally uncollectable, of course, but years and decades later (as the ACLU and Philadelphia’s Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity [OCEO] have documented), those “unpaid debts” are being used to yank people back into jail (aka Debtors’ Prison) and deny them pardons (see related story). In an exciting partnership, PLSE, the ACLU and the OCEO came together in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas to ask for mercy (aka, waiver of those fees and costs). In our support, City Managing Director Tumar Alexander provided an Affidavit voicing “the City of Philadelphia’s strong support for any and all such motions and petitions.”
And by Order dated October 1, 2021, the Honorable Crystal Bryant-Powell “remitted [erased] supervision fees in the amount of $1175 and court costs and fines in the amount of $978.94" - $2,153.94 that the Court was never going to see anyway, but which was strangling our client and her family. Kudos and incredible thanks to Judge Bryant-Powell and City Managing Director Alexander for their wisdom, compassion, and vision of a better, more just society! And to PLSE Staff Attorney Sarah Coyle and Andrew Christy, ACLU-PA’s Criminal Justice and Poverty Attorney, for this great result!
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Applause II: PA Bar Association |
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The Pennsylvania Bar Association’s mission is “to serve as the organization most broadly representative of the members of the bar of this commonwealth,” but with equal (we’d say greater) importance, “to support and promote the equal administration of justice for all and that no one on account of poverty be denied their legal rights.” It proved its worth on November 18 when its Board of Directors unanimously endorsed a Recommendation calling on the Board of Pardons to stop using unpaid fines, fees and costs to delay, deny or condition pardon hearings for low-income applicants; and then, two days later, when its entire House of Delegates overwhelmingly supported that same Recommendation, with 87% voting in favor and no one speaking against!
In particular, the Recommendation "calls on the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons, the Lieutenant Governor, and the Governor to cease requesting, investigating or considering outstanding fines, court costs, and/or fees in the consideration of an application for executive clemency by individuals without the ability to pay and, in particular, making the full payment thereof a condition precedent to obtaining a Merit Review hearing on such applications."
Joining in support were the Bar Associations of Dauphin, Erie, Lancaster, Lackawanna and Philadelphia – truly a statewide effort. Now will the Board of Pardons listen??
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Applause III: The WDB, the BOP and the Gov |
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Meanwhile, we are having GREAT success inside halls of government! On November 9, the statewide Workforce Development Board unanimously adopted a Resolution (Materials at p63) calling on state government to “take all requisite steps, including, if necessary, promulgating new regulations, to ensure the prompt review (within one year) by the Board of Pardons of all applications for pardon from Pennsylvanians who completed their sentences five or more years ago on convictions that did not include crimes of violence and who have remained arrest-free ever since.”
For its part, the PA Board of Pardons is moving many more cases along much more quickly. It reviewed almost 1000 cases (948) at its quarterly Merit Reviews. These days, over half of the cases are getting there via an accelerated track. At the upcoming public hearings on Nov 30-Dec 1, 75% the 120 pardon applications being heard – 90 of 120! – are on the “consent agenda” with the applicants excused attending, having already received at least 4 votes in their favor.
And the Gov? Thanks to new procedures adopted by the BOP’s staff and the purposeful attention being given by the Offices of General Counsel and the Governor, the delays are significantly down and Governor Wolf continues signing 98.7% of all pardons recommended to him. In fact, he could well sign his 2,000th pardon before the end of December – far more than any other governor in PA history! More pardons, faster. Hooray Hooray Hooray!!!
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Pennsylvania State Association of the Prothonotaries and Clerks of Court |
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One of the absolute-musts in the pardon process is to attach to the application six different documents that have to be obtained from the court in which the applicant was tried and convicted. That’s a bit daunting for lawyers who are not litigators, and more than a bit traumatic for those whose last experience there as defendants wasn’t so positive. Add to that the documents are never consistent, and courthouses often closed (especially to non-lawyers) due to the virus, and you see the problem. Enter the state’s prothonotaries and clerks of court to the rescue!
Seeing how important they are to the process, Judy Enslen -- Beaver County’s Clerk of Court, key founding member of the new Pardon Project of Beaver County, and President of the Pennsylvania State Association of the Prothonotaries and Clerks of Court -- decided to convene her members so they could hear about what’s happening statewide. 27 counties were represented on the call, hear their colleagues in Allegheny, Erie, Lackawanna and Philadelphia talk about how they are getting the records to the applicants, their attorneys, and even their non-attorney Pardon Coaches working with Pardon Projects. Today, 16 counties are providing PDFs of the required documents by email. This is simply terrific!! Thank you, Court Officers!
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Applause V: Law Schools From Around The State |
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Duquesne Law School has been helping people apply for pardons for a while. Penn Law has had a Pardon Project for even longer – they actually schooled us in 2018 when we were forming ours! We’ve now built on that relationship to create (new this fall!) Pardon Projects with Drexel and Temple law schools here in Philly, and with Penn State Dickinson and Penn State Law, where they are taking referrals from PLSE, learning the ropes as they head towards creating Pardon Projects in Carlisle (Cumberland County) and State College (Centre County). Thank you, law schools in Pennsylvania! Now, how about the rest of you? |
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And Finally, Applause for PLSE!!! |
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You can tell, we've been busy building coalitions, empowering communities, and raising voices in support of second chances. There's equally wonderful news here at home - and here's a sampling of what's happened since our last newsletter:
- We marked our 10th Anniversary of service to Philadelphia and its low-income communities (incorporated August 26, 2011)
- We received our 2021 Gold Seal from GuideStar - which is earned by less the 5% of the 1.8 million charities registered with the IRS, and we finished our first-ever full audit with NO management letter
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We filed our 25,000th expungement petition in the Philadelphia Criminal Court – 25,000!!! – more than any other organization in the country, with a ten-year success rate of over 98%
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We trained our 350th attorney to be a Pardon Coach in just over one year, having offered 25 courses and awarded 481 CLE credits as an accredited provider; and we are now referring over 30 cases each month to attorney Pardon Coaches, with the numbers steadily rising. Kudos to Philly’s lawyers for stepping up and leading the country in yet another area of pro bono!
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We launched our new Marijuana Amnesty Project with a start-up grant from Green Thumb Industries, intent on generating thousands of pardon applications, new accelerated review procedures from the BOP, and, fingers crossed, a general pardon from the Governor before he leaves office in January 2023. More on this in future newsletters!
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We are now not just predominantly Black-serving, but Black-led for the very first time in our history at both the staff and Board levels!
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Filmmaker, producer and Mike Lee Fellow Shuja Moore received a first-ever grant from Independence Public Media Foundation for the movie he is making about pardons! They called his film (and the other projects they funded) “calls to action to strengthen and inspire our collective communities by addressing the systems that need to be reimagined and reinvented so justice is possible.” With this grant (for which PLSE is the fiscal sponsor), his film was not only fully-funded but he will also be able to host screenings followed by community discussions. Look for the premier to happen next month, and events throughout 2022!
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PLSE’s pathbreaking study of the people serving life sentences without parole for the crime of second degree murder is being cited not only in academic journals but in amicus curiae briefs filed in appellate courts, including one by Eighth Amendment scholars
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At its recent “From Hardship To Hope” celebration, Uplift Solutions recognized PLSE’s work three different ways: we received the Trailblazer Award for our “innovative programming and critical partnership”; Mike Lee Fellow Shuja Moore received the Visionary Award for his efforts to “reduce poverty and gun violence by inspiring young adults through his work as a filmmaker”; and one of Uplift’s two program graduates honored with the Unparalleled Perseverance Award “for overcoming countless hurdles on their paths to success” was a client of PLSE! What a wonderful evening that was!
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Nice Words from Our Supporters |
It’s always wonderful hearing from our supporters. But here’s a note to our new ED from someone we greatly respect, who heads up the pro bono program at Ballard Spahr LLP, one of our strongest partners with whom we continue to innovate:
"Dear Renee,
Thank you for your kind message. We have had really exceptional experiences volunteering with PLSE: at the pardons clinic that we attended earlier this week, Sarah and Patrick trained 40 volunteers, scheduled client meetings, and supported legal teams as we helped 20 people begin their pardon applications. They make the work so easy for our volunteers. I am looking forward to our continued partnership with PLSE!"
-Lisa Swaminathan, Pro Bono Counsel
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Three Ways You Can Help:
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Honor Bernard Lee and contribute to the Mike Lee Fellowship program.
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Reduce our waiting list, now over 100, of clients awaiting a Pardon Coach by getting your law firm or corporate law department to become a “Pardon Hub” – one hour CLE and pre-qualified PLSE clients; just contact us! and we’ll take it from there!
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Write the Governor and urge him on to granting his 2,000th pardon before 2022!
Stay energized, optimistic and healthy.
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Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity
111 S. 38th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104
(267) 519-5323
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