Clemency is about justice, not politics. Kansas is on the right commutation path

Gov. Laura Kelly granted clemency to more people — eight — than any Kansas governor in a generation. Not all executives allow themselves to see the people behind their policies, but she did. That takes courage.

With nearly 10,000 people in Kansas’ prisons, there are certainly more whose cases deserve consideration, independent review and timely release. In each case, there is a person with dreams, families and hopes, ready for a better story for their lives. In each case, there is the possibility of redemption.

We applaud this historic step, while acknowledging there’s much more the governor can do to relieve human suffering in this system, which is holistic in its injustice. Commutations will not end mass incarceration, but they offer a critical backstop for the problems and issues the system misses.

The ACLU of Kansas hopes Kelly’s action last month ushers in a new era of smart justice in which the state’s top executive engages clemency more frequently as a justice safety valve, rather than the politically expedient way it too often shows up as governors leave office.

Clemency should not be about situational courage, but rather the exercise of strong leadership. It is about recognizing the myriad failures of the criminal legal system and using a unique power to strive for change. And as we saw from the governor’s use of her clemency authority last month, it is about making a statement about the power of redemption.

One of our clients, a semester away from a degree, is eager to pursue an MBA. Another, now in the autumn of life, paid his debt to society during his 26 years in prison and repaid all of the less than $7,000 he was convicted of stealing. A third has dreams of opening a restaurant, and he will return home to the open arms of his young daughter.

Another client, released in March through the Prisoner Review Board’s byzantine functional incapacitation process, had late-stage cancer. Because of that measure of compassion, he was able to die at home surrounded by family.

The ACLU of Kansas’ Clemency Project, launched in spring 2020, sought to change the way we think about the people languishing under unduly harsh sentences in Kansas’s chronically overpopulated prisons. We placed this issue on the state’s radar, representing three of the eight people in total who were recently released or pardoned, and having filed 108 clemency applications of the over 200 total awaiting review.

Kelly said during her campaign that there were people sitting in prison who should not be there. These commutations and pardons speak to that promise. There are people in prison right now who, had they been sentenced under revised guidelines, would already be released. There are deathly ill people who no longer pose a public safety risk. There are people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses. And there are people who do not fit neatly into one category or another, but whose situations warrant another look.

As our legal director Sharon Brett said, “Clemency is not about who you were, but about what you’re now deserving of. Our clients are far more than their convictions.”

This may seem like a policy fight, but human beings stand at the center of every policy. We are fighting for our neighbors and community members, our fellow Kansans and their families. They need our society — all of us — to confront the inequities in our system, to recognize where change is needed, and to hold our leaders accountable.

With Gov. Kelly’s actions, we have a chance for a new beginning. That first step was the hardest. Let’s keep courageously marching forward together.

Nadine Johnson is executive director of the ACLU of Kansas.