WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has conceded the first three pardons of his termgranting clemency to a Kennedy-era Secret Service agent convicted of federal bribery charges who tried to sell a copy of an agency file and to two people who were convicted of drug-related charges but became mainstays in their communities.
The Democratic president also commuted the sentences of another 75 people for nonviolent drug-related convictions. The White House announced the clemency Tuesday as it launched a series of job training and re-entry programs for those in prison or recently released.
Many of those who received commutations have been serving their sentences in home confinement for the covid-19 pandemic. Several were serving long sentences and would have received lesser sentences had they been convicted today of the same crimes as a result of the bipartisan sentencing reform of 2018 signed into law by the Trump administration.
“America is a nation of laws and second chances, redemption and rehabilitation,” Biden said in a statement announcing the clemency. “Elected officials from both sides of the aisle, religious leaders, civil rights advocates, and law enforcement leaders all agree that our criminal justice system can and should reflect these core values that enable healthier communities. safe and strong.”
The pardons granted are:
— Abraham Bolden Sr., 86, the first black Secret Service agent to serve on a presidential detail. In 1964, Bolden, who served in President John F. Kennedy’s detail, faced federal bribery charges for trying to sell a copy of a Secret Service file. His first trial ended in a hung jury.
Following his conviction in a second trial, key witnesses admitted lying at the request of the prosecutor. Bolden, of Chicago, was denied a new trial and served several years in federal prison. Bolden has maintained his innocence and wrote a book in which he argued that he was targeted for speaking out against racist and unprofessional behavior in the Secret Service.
— Betty Jo Bogans, 51, was convicted in 1998 of possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine in Texas after attempting to transport drugs for her boyfriend and his accomplice. Bogans, a single mother with no record, received a seven-year sentence. In the years since her release from prison, Bogans has had steady employment, even while she underwent cancer treatment, and she has raised a son.
— Dexter Jackson, 52, of Athens, Georgia, was convicted in 2002 of using his pool hall to facilitate marijuana trafficking. Jackson pleaded guilty and admitted that he allowed his business to be used by marijuana dealers.
After Jackson was released from prison, he turned his business into a cell phone repair service that employs local high school students through a program that provides work experience for young adults. Jackson has built and renovated houses in his community, which has a shortage of affordable housing.
Civil rights and criminal justice reform groups have pushed the White House to commute sentences and do more to reduce disparities in the criminal justice system. Biden’s clemency concessions also come as the administration has faced scrutiny from Congress for misconduct and treatment of inmates at the embattled Federal Bureau of Prisonswhich deals with inmates serving home prison sentences.
Biden, as head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, helped push through the 1994 crime bill that many criminal justice experts say contributed to harsh sentencing and mass incarceration of Black people.
During his 2020 White House bid, Biden promised to reduce the number of people incarcerated in the US and called for non-violent drug offenders to be diverted to drug courts and receive treatment.
He also pushed for better training for law enforcement and called for changes to the criminal justice system to address disparities that have led to minorities and the poor making up a disproportionate share of the country’s incarcerated population.
Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, granted 143 pardons and clemency to 237 during his four years in office.
Trump sought the advice of prison reform advocate Alice Johnsona black woman whose life sentence for a nonviolent drug offense was commuted in 2018. He was also pressured by celebrity Kim Kardashian and advisers inside the White House, including her daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, as she weighed clemency applications.
The Republican used his pardon authority to help various friends and political allies, including the former campaign manager. Paul Manafortrepublican operative roger stone and Charles Kushner, the father-in-law of Ivanka Trump.
Between Trump’s last acts as president he was forgiving his former chief strategist Steve Bannon and Al Pirro, the husband of Fox News anchor and Trump ally Jeanine Pirro.
Prosecutors alleged that Bannon, who had not yet been tried when he was pardoned, had misled thousands of donors who believed their money would be used to fulfill Trump’s main campaign promise to build a wall along the southern border. Instead, Bannon allegedly siphoned off more than $1 million, paying a campaign official a salary and personal expenses for himself. Pirro was convicted in 2000 on tax charges.
With the list of pardons and commutations announced Tuesday, Biden has issued more clemency grants than any of the previous five presidents at this point in their terms, according to the White House.
In addition to the clemency grants, Biden announced several new initiatives that are aimed at helping formerly incarcerated people gain employment, an issue his administration sees as key to lowering crime rates and preventing recidivism.
The Department of Labor is committing $140 million to programs that provide job training, pre-apprenticeship programs, digital literacy training, and pre- and post-release career counseling and more for incarcerated youth and adults.
The Infrastructure bill of $1 billion passed by Congress last year includes a trio of grant programs that the administration says promote the hiring of formerly incarcerated people. And the Departments of Labor and Justice announced Tuesday a collaborative plan to provide $145 million over the next year in job training, as well as individualized employment and re-entry plans for people serving time in the Bureau of Prisons.
Biden said the new initiatives are vital to helping the more than 600,000 people released from prison each year get stable.
“Helping those who have served their sentence to return to their families and become contributing members of their communities is one of the most effective ways to reduce recidivism and decrease crime,” Biden said.
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Associated Press writer Michael Balsamo contributed to this report.
Reference-news.yahoo.com