,Increasing the Use of Executive Clemency to Help Low-Income People with Criminal Records

Increasing the Use of Executive Clemency to Help Low-Income People with Criminal Records


 

Publication Date: November 2008

Publisher: Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law; Clearinghouse Review: Journal of Poverty Law and Policy

Author(s): Marie Claire Tran; Margaret Stapleton

Research Area: Government; Labor; Social conditions

Keywords: Workforce; Prisoner Re-entry; Ex-Offenders; Clemency

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

Granting clemency is an expansive and individual power of the executive, and its exercise can break down the barriers to employment often faced by ex-offenders and this means the difference between remaining in and escaping poverty. The next president should use his constitutionally based power to grant clemency frequently and should push for broader expungement rights for offenders as well as a society wide understanding of the value of democracy.