People Change.
Records Can Too.
More Pardons, Faster!
There are lots of ways that YOU can help – just click!
- If you need help erasing your record, get help.
- If you have lived experience in the criminal justice system, join us! The Pardon Project Steering Committee is building a powerful voice for change by having members from all counties. We meet every other month by zoom.
- Enlist! Give us your email address and we will send you a CALL TO ACTION when we need you. We will NOT share your contact information with anyone.
- Write! Join our letter-writing campaign asking the Governor to speed up signing pardons that have been recommended to him.
- Subscribe! – Stay informed by subscribing to PLSE’s newsletter – a 5-minute read every month about developments in record-clearing around Pennsylvania.
- Follow! – You can stay up to date with the Pardon Me film and pardon news updates on our Twitter/X account @Pardons4People. For more record-clearing news, follow the Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity on Twitter/X, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Or you can share your own experience! Any pardon-related news, posts, or stories, add the hashtag, #pardons4thepeople.
- Volunteer! We need people to serve as Pardon Coaches (click here for the calendar of upcoming training sessions and register for one) and to help the PPSC with social media, fundraising, and grant-writing – write us and let us know how you can help..
- Attend or Host a screening of Pardon Me – the documentary short film produced and directed by PPSC member Shuja Moore about the pardon process and the potential it releases. Click here for the current schedule of screenings.
- Contribute to the Campaign – it costs money to get Shuja and his film into a theatre near you, to train Pardon Coaches, to create Pardon Projects … Give what you can. All gifts are tax-deductible. No gift is too small … or too big! Be sure to write “PPSC” in the comment box!
THANK YOU!
The Pardon Project Steering Committee
Akeem Sims, Chair (pardon recipient 2021)
Evan Figueroa-Vargas, Vice Chair (pardon recipient 2022)
Paula Budnick, Secretary (pardon recipient 2018)
Krista Henry, Asst. Secretary
News Alert
On August 6, 2026, the Board of Pardons again granted hearings to (slightly) more than 80% of the candidates they reviewed: 66 of the 82 candidates. This has pretty much been a constant rate for several years now.
The Board was unanimous on 60% of the candidates they reviewed -- 38 unanimously yes, 11 unanimously no. This high percentage again suggests that they could have sped up their review of those 39 candidates by several years.
The really bad news in all of this is that the Board considered only 82 candidates. Only 82. At that rate, they'd merit review only 246 candidates per year - FAR less than the 2,000 or so applications they are receiving every year.
It's no wonder that the backlog is now over 7,000 candidates and the wait for their merit review for applicants filing now is over 10 years. That is simply shameful. Something clearly must be done to fix the system.
About the Pardon Project
Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity (PLSE) has been helping low-income Philadelphians clean up their criminal records since 2011. In 2018, it started the Pardon Project to make the pardon process in Pennsylvania accessible to those without money to hire lawyers. In 2020, PLSE began helping communities outside Philadelphia form their own Pardon Projects. The Pennsylvania Association of Pardon Projects was formed the following year. Click here to read the article Pardon Projects: Communities Coming Together in Restorative Justice (PA Bar Association, Jan. 2022).
Pennsylvania Association of Pardon Projects
230 S. Broad Street Suite 1102
Philadelphia, PA 19102
230 S. Broad Street Suite 1102
Philadelphia, PA 19102
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