Biden Should Go Beyond Commutations for Death Row and Commute Life Sentences Too

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The Road to Abolition

Joe Biden has set a record-breaking number of clemencies and commutations into motion as his presidency comes to an end. On December 12, Biden commuted the sentences of 1,499 people who had committed nonviolent crimes and had “been serving their sentences at home for at least one year under the COVID-era CARES Act.” Less than two weeks later, he commuted the death sentences of 37 out of 40 people facing federal execution to life sentences. With this action, the outgoing president took important steps to address the harm of capital punishment.

Biden must also consider taking action for those already serving federal mandatory life sentences, often called “death by incarceration.”

According to the Sentencing Project, “one in seven people in U.S. prisons is serving a life sentence, either life without parole, life with parole or virtual life (50 years or more), totaling 203,865 people” as of 2021. This is the highest number of people in history — a 66 percent increase since 2003, the first time the census was taken. Many of these people facing “death by incarceration” were sentenced under guidelines that are no longer used.

In 1984, the United States Sentencing Commission released uniform guidelines that created statutory mandatory minimum sentences. At the time, Biden supported the creation of these guidelines as a senator representing Delaware. In the decades since, these guidelines have devastated countless families by tearing them apart. Nearly half (45 percent) of adults in the U.S. ― 113 million people nationwide ― have an immediate family member who has spent at least one night in jail or prison, according to a study released in December by Cornell University and political advocacy group FWD.us.

Forty years later, it is long past time for our nation to repair the harm done by these guidelines.

These excessive sentences set the precedent for the war on drugs and mass incarceration, which devastated Black and Brown communities and caused long-lasting harm through multiple generations. Efforts were made to address the harm by making changes to the sentencing guidelines, however, mandatory sentences were not changed.

The Sentencing Project data shows, “More than two-thirds of those serving life sentences are people of color; with one in five Black men in prison serving a life sentence; and Latinx individuals comprising 16% of those serving life sentences.”

I am a survivor of this mass incarceration. In 2005, I was convicted of a drug conspiracy charge, which triggered a mandatory minimum sentence. I was sentenced to a 120-month federal mandatory minimum sentence as a first-time, nonviolent drug offender.

This caused me to be torn away from my firstborn infant son and sent thousands of miles away to the other side of the United States. While in prison, I made the commitment to utilize my time productively by pursuing higher education, job apprenticeship training, personal development courses and volunteer activities before reentering society.

But none of my efforts were able to be taken into consideration when changes were made to the sentencing guidelines. Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act in 2010, which “reduced the 100 to 1 disparity for crack cocaine offenses compared to cocaine offenses to 18 to 1. The intent was to reduce sentences,” according to Prison Legal News. Sadly, this was not the case.

Sentencing guideline changes have often excluded thousands like myself, who were sentenced to mandatory minimum sentences. According to the United States Sentencing Commission, “59.1% of individuals convicted of an offense carrying a mandatory minimum penalty did not receive relief.”

Since my release from prison, I have been committed to fighting for dignity for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people and educating the public about the realities of the prison-industrial complex. I founded a nonprofit organization, Block Builderz, which advocates for systemic change through organizing grassroots legislative campaigns, centering voices of directly impacted people and expanding opportunities for people with criminal histories.

From 2016 through 2021, 709 people were sentenced to life in federal prison. This means they will not be offered a chance of redemption without clemency from the president.

The thousands of people sitting in prison have unlimited potential to make a positive difference in their communities (and many of them already did). People like clemency recipient Amy Ralston Povah, who received clemency under the Clinton administration after serving 9 years of a 24-year sentence for “conspiracy.” After her release, Amy started the nonprofit CAN-DO Foundation and has fiercely advocated for freedom for others sentenced unfairly. Hundreds of people have benefitted from Amy’s relentless fight for freedom.

A recent three-day clemency vigil led by the National Council of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls uplifted people like Michelle West, Lazara Ordaz, Sara Gallegos, Glenn Metz, Connie Edwards and Roberta Bell, who have shown incredible courage and resilience — in some cases over the course of more than 30 years of incarceration.

The Council is seeking clemency for women who are elderly, seriously or terminally ill, who are long-timers in need of a second chance, who have been sexually abused or have children at risk of moving into foster care. We hope that many people beyond these groups will be granted a chance at release as well.

Legislative reform can also promote the use of clemency. Introduced in 2021, the Fair and Independent Experts in Clemency (FIX Clemency) Act “would create an independent nine-person U.S. Clemency Board, with at least one of the nine being a person who was formerly incarcerated. The board would make all official clemency recommendations to the president, removing the responsibility from the Justice Department, and all recommendations would also be included in an annual report to Congress.”

Unfortunately, it has not been passed.

Now, we ask President Biden to use the clemency tool as intended — to correct disproportionate sentences. These weeks may be the last chance he has to address a destructive part of his legislative legacy. As the nation prepares for the next administration prior to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, it is urgent for the president to bend the moral arc of history towards justice by granting freedom to the ones left behind.