Biden grants clemency to 75 nonviolent drug offenders to mark 'Second Chance Month'

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President Biden today announced he would commute the sentences of 75 nonviolent drug offenders, part of a “Second Chance Month” meant to call attention to the failures and systemic racism of the war on drugs. Three pardons were announced, including the pardon of the first Black American to ever serve as part of a presidential Secret Service detail: Abraham Boldon served several years in prison after he was accused in 1964 of trying to sell Secret Service information, but witnesses later recanted their testimony and Boldon himself always maintained the charge was retaliation against him for exposing racism in the agency.

These are the first pardons of Biden’s term. Criminal justice advocates have been hopeful that Biden would use his powers to more broadly grant clemency for those caught in the transparently racist supposed “war on drugs” that resulted in hyperaggressive policing of non-white neighborhoods while ignoring drug use in white ones, but so far Biden’s team has shied away from that sort of boldness. Seventy-five commuted sentences is still a good start, though.

Turning slightly to a media critic role: There are two bits in the reporting on this that are a bit odd and worth calling out. In The Washington Post‘s write-up, we are told:  

“Biden’s use of his sweeping clemency powers appears more targeted on righting injustices than his immediate predecessor, Donald Trump, who was known for granting pardons to celebrities and political allies who had broken the law.”

That looks conspicuously like a Post attempt at snark, but it’s probably lost on most readers. A more accurate phrasing would note that Trump notoriously used his pardon powers to immunize political allies who were involved in probes of potentially criminal behavior by Donald Trump. Trump’s pardons were not merely magnanimous attempts at celebrity toe-kissing or rewards to allies but often appeared to be squarely aimed at rewarding close associates who lied or refused to talk to federal investigators about his own acts.

As for CNN, their write-up commits the Trump-era sin of granting anonymity to a “senior administration official” who tells us that Biden is “committed to using his clemency power to provide relief to individuals who are serving long sentences that they could no longer receive today, because of changes in the law, including the First Step Act, which reduced mandatory minimum sentences for certain nonviolent drug offenses” and these are … not statements worth granting anonymity for! Did the reporter simply forget to ask probably-Jen-Psaki to go on the record, or some similar flub that needed to be papered over a bit?

Please, please do not continue the Trump-era habit of granting top administration officials anonymity to provide administration-flattering information that directly and 100% mirrors what the administration itself is saying, even if such information is harmless. During the Trump era it was used by gutless officials to slather Trump with implausible praise and to stovepipe ridiculous talking points without having to take responsibility for saying such intelligence-insulting things. It was essentially a method of dodging public blowback for spouting falsehoods. We don’t need to hear “anonymous” officials giving us the exact same information the White House officially wants to put out. Anonymity is meant to protect sources willing to give information their peers do not want the public to know.

This person is not going to get fired if anyone ever learns that they spilled the beans that Biden “believes that there (are) too many people serving unduly long sentences for nonviolent drug crimes.” We know that. He’s said it. Please have an editorial meeting and hash out what statements deserve anonymity and which statements are just someone in power trying to bend a story to their will without taking public responsibility for their statements. Please.

Now that we’ve gotten my intractable crabbiness out of the way, what should we make of Biden’s use of his powers here? It’s good! The pardons are meant to reward a small set of individuals whose post-conviction lives have been devoted to the public good. The commuted sentences send another clear message reminding the nation that there is a sin here that needs to be corrected. It’s a sin that destroyed American lives for no better reason than a past spate of public paranoia that, as it turned out, served much the same purposes as other race-based paranoias before and since. Let’s do this again next month, and the month after that, and so on. You’re never going to run out of people who deserve clemency when it comes to past drug possessions. Not ever.