December 3, 2024 Estimated Reading Time: 5m 19s |
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I'd open every cell in Attica, send 'em to Africa — Nas Akwaaba! That means "welcome," and is the official greeting in Ghana's twi language. You didn't get this newsletter last week in part because I was in the Motherland for a small convening of artists, storytellers, civil society and journalists in Accra, the capital. I hope to tell you more about the trip in a future edition of Reckon Report. But after visiting Osu Castle, where African captives were held and dispatched mostly to the Caribbean Islands, I've been thinking a lot about time, bondage and forgiveness. So this week, we're talking about presidential pardons and clemency, which have been in the news because of President Biden's reversal on pardoning a member of his family. Let's talk about it. |
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Since President Joe Biden touched off a firestorm by pardoning his son, Hunter, an ever growing chorus of prison-reform advocates and abolitionists are calling on Biden to extend clemency to more people. Even before the most recent Hunter Biden controversy, lawmakers urged the president to use his executive authority to “reunite families, confront deep-seated injustices in the legal system, and guide the nation toward ending mass incarceration.” In a Nov. 20 letter signed by 67 members of Congress, lawmakers wrote: “Our nation has the highest incarceration rate in the world, with nearly two million people locked in jails and prisons throughout the country. The extreme use of incarceration has resulted in one in two adults having an incarcerated family member." “The Biden White House deserves credit for uplifting and championing the importance of second chances,” said Zoë Towns, FWD.us’ executive director said in a statement, adding: “As his presidency draws to a close, President Biden must build on this record and prioritize commuting sentences to bring sons, mothers, uncles, and grandparents home to their families.” |
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Pardon me, do you know the story of Abraham Bolden? |
In early 2008, my editor handed me an advance copy of "The Echo from Dealey Plaza" and thought interviewing the memoir's author might be interesting. Abraham Bolden, like my family, was from East St. Louis, Illinois, and attended college at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Mo., an HBCU just up the road from my alma mater and was living on Chicago's South Side. Ever since, I’ve been obsessed with Bolden’s case and story, which I also covered for Ebony in 2016, which goes like this: As a young Illinois State Trooper, Bolden was personally invited to by President John F. Kennedy to join the U.S. Secret Service and Kennedy’s protective detail. He would spend six decades trying to get justice for what happened next. |
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The story presidential pardon power, like everything in this country, starts with booze. In 1794, farmers in western Pennsylvania resisted a federal excise tax on whiskey, which they saw as unfairly targeting small producers. General George Washington personally led a militia to quell the uprising, demonstrating the federal government's authority under the Constitution. After the rebellion ended, Washington issued the first presidential pardons to two men sentenced to death for treason, emphasizing the government's capacity for both strength and mercy in maintaining order. Here are more facts about presidential clemency: —There are 10 people in the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons under the age of 18 (BOP) —As of November, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP) oversees 158,005 individuals. —At the start of 2024, 47% of people incarcerated in federal prisons were there for drug convictions (BOP) —White people make up the majority of people in federal custody, representing 56.7% of the population; African Americans are 39% of the population (BOP) —The average age is 42 years, with 22.2% 50 or older and 7.1% aged 60 or older (U.S. Sentencing Commission) —The vast majority of people in federal custody were convicted of drug trafficking, 65,096 to be exact. The next most common conviction is firearms-related charges, 20,701 (Sentencing Commission) —President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the most pardons, 3,687 during his term (Wikipedia) —The recidivism rate among people released early under The First Step Act was 12.4%, much lower than the general rate of recidivism in fiscal-year 2018 (FWD) |
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As always free to respond to this email with your thoughts, concerns, data points and tips. Peace!
— RL |
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Ryan "R.L." Nave is Reckon's editor-in-chief. Prior to joining Reckon, he served as editor-in-chief of Mississippi Today, now the state’s largest newsroom. Nave was also an editor and reporter at the Jackson (Miss.) Free Press and a staff writer for Illinois Times in the capital, Springfield. He's also been an independent journalist, his work appearing on Serial/The New York Times, Ebony, The Root, The Source and other local and national publications.
His reporting has received dozens of state and national journalism awards. He has led teams whose work garnered local, state and national journalism awards, including the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Journalism and an Edward R. Murrow Award. He was a 2019 McGraw Business Reporting fellow at City University New York and completed fellowships at the University of Colorado-Boulder and Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
He served as president of the Jackson, Miss., chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists and is currently chairman of the board for the Jackson-based Center for Ideas, Equity & Transformative Change. |
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