PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has proclaimed April as Second Chance Month, saying people having a criminal record shouldn’t mean a lifetime of exclusion from building a better life for themselves or their families.
The Board of Pardons joined Lt. Gov. John Fetterman Monday to unveil a much-needed update to the way clemency applications are filed.
Pennsylvania’s old paper-based application process is going digital by way of a $1.1 million upgrade. This upgrade is the first since the advent of computers, and it’s being designed to simplify the process and move applications along in a timelier fashion.
The board oversees two forms of clemency: Pardons for people who are not incarcerated, and sentence commutations. The latter are sentence reductions for people who are in prison, believe they are reformed and have been over-sentenced.
Board of Pardons Secretary Celeste Trusty says the upgrade is a long time coming,
“Instead of relying solely on paper applications, people will be able to access our online application via smart phone, tablet or computer to apply on line and upload supporting documents,” Trusty said.
She noted that clemency in Pennsylvania is also a racial justice issue. Three-fourths of people given clemency during Wolf’s administration have been people of color.
Fetterman added that the digital documents will speed up the process and alleviate the current backlog. The number of applications have risen over the years, especially for expedited commutations for marijuana convictions.
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“We’ve simplified the application. It used to be 30 pages long and has a lot of useless information, so we’ve continued to try to expedite this process. We’ve eliminated the fees associated with the application, too,” Fetterman said.
Monday’s announcement was supported by those who went through the years-long commutation process, like George Trudel. He spent 31 years in prison and was sentenced to life for second-degree felony murder, after a fight that cost someone’s life when he was 19.
Trudel did not take the young man’s life.
“I was a kid that grew up in the Frankford section of Philadelphia which is a bad area, and it wasn’t anything for me to see fights happen on a daily basis,” said Trudel.
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“I just never imagined that the fight that night would turn into what it did.”
George himself is now a commutation specialist. So is Naomi Blount Wilson, who was freed after spending 37 years in prison.
A judge forensically exonerated her. She did not participate in the crime she was convicted of in 1985.
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“I think I probably walk a straighter line than most people, because I’m still living with that fear of going back, and I don’t want to go back,” Blount Wilson said.
Since taking office, Gov. Wolf has pardoned more than 1,900 people, including 256 people who filed expedited applications for minor marijuana-related offenses.
The new system is expected to go live by year’s end.
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