[ [link removed] ]Ayanna Pressley for Congress

This
Thanksgiving, many families will gather with an empty seat at the table,
missing someone who is behind a wall.

Our country’s mass incarceration crisis has resulted in 50% of adults
having had an immediate family member incarcerated. Half.

Growing up with an incarcerated parent, I can only imagine what my
childhood could have been like if my father’s substance use disorder had
been met with compassion and care rather than criminalization and
incarceration. We would’ve gotten more time together — more family meals,
more holidays, more invaluable years.

I’m proud to share that my father is healthy, he is thriving, and he has
gone on to make great contributions to our society as an accomplished
author and professor of journalism. But I am not proud that those
contributions had to be delayed because our criminal legal system is
focused more on replicating hurt and harm instead of rehabilitating
productive members of society.

This is personal for me, and my story is hardly an anomaly. So before
President Biden leaves office, I’m urging him to seize the limited window
of time he has left to use his executive clemency powers to address our
country’s mass incarceration crisis — a crisis that disproportionately
affects people of color.

My colleagues and I sent an official letter urging that President Biden
use his clemency power to reunite families, address longstanding
injustices in our legal system, and help broad classes of people and
cases, including:

* The elderly and chronically ill
* Those on death row
* People with unjustified sentencing disparities, and
* Women who were punished for defending themselves against their abusers

Clemency is a powerful tool, and President Biden has already used it to
pardon people convicted of simple marijuana possession and LGBTQ+ former
servicemembers, which has had life-changing impacts.

We are bracing ourselves for an incoming administration that is hell-bent
on doing more harm than healing. Donald Trump infamously purchased a full
page ad in the New York Times calling for the execution of the Central
Park Five, who have since been exonerated. He used the federal death
penalty to carry out an unprecedented execution spree in the final months
of his first presidency. And Project 2025 calls for the Department of
Justice to do “everything possible” to execute the individuals currently
on federal death row.

We must do everything — everything — in our power to save lives while we
still can. President Biden was elected with a mandate to lead with
compassion and change lives for the better, and today he has the power to
do so right now.

I’m going to do everything I can to fight for this — for young children
longing to hug their grandparents, for people who have taken
responsibility for their mistakes, and for those who simply were never
given a fair chance. [ [link removed] ]If you’re able to pitch in a small-dollar donation
today to our campaign, you’ll help make this critical work happen. Thank
you.

Onward,

Ayanna

 





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