There are so many folks currently in prison who spend decades trying to do everything right. Not getting in trouble, taking every class available, being a mentor to others, just for a chance to be *considered* for clemency. For a chance to go home. I'm thinking of them right now.

It's difficult to articulate how much the hope of getting pardoned is something that many people in prison cling to. It comes up over and over again. It offers hope where little exist. It offers the possibility that people might see their family again. People work so hard for it.

There are people serving life sentences for things that they did as children. Who have spent decades trying to get someone to give them another chance. Now they watch as pardons are simply handed to people with wealth, with social and political proximity to power. It's appalling.