Newsletter Vol 6 No 5

May 2024

PLSE has had another busy month out in the community collaborating with community partners to host record clearing clinics in Philadelphia neighborhoods especially affected by criminal records. On May 4th, in collaboration with the office of State Rep. Darisha K. Parker, PLSE hosted a clinic at the Germantown Masjid. Special thanks to lawyer and law student volunteers affiliated with the Barristers Association of Philadelphia and Drexel University for staffing the event. 

On May 18th PLSE and the Parkside Association hosted a clinic at JYK Discovery Charter School at 4700 Parkside Avenue. The event was well attended with over 70 people completing an intake to begin the process of clearing their record. Thank you to Ms. Lucinda Hudson, President of the Parkside Association, for organizing the event. 

Pictured above (L-R): Michael McDonald, President, PA Bar Association; Angel Fox, District Staff to State Rep. Patty Kim and leader of the emerging Pardon Project of Dauphin County; Mary Hoskins, Executive Director of Zion Community Services and Co-Director of the Pardon Project of Lancaster County; Paula Budnick, Secretary, Pardon Project Steering Committee; Anna Joyner, Career Specialist (and former Pardon Fellow), Pittsburgh Community Services, Inc; Tobey Oxholm; and Wes Payne, President, PA Bar Foundation

The PA Bar Foundation has been presenting the Louis J. Goffman Award since 1989. It allows the profession to recognize and applaud “exceptional people and organizations whose commitments to pro bono have enhanced the delivery of legal services to Pennsylvanians, making a critical difference in the lives of those in need of legal representation, who could not otherwise afford it.” If you look at the list of past award winners, you’ll see some pretty impressive names.

PLSE won it back in 2017 for its efforts to expand access to expungements for low-income Philadelphians. Seven years later, PLSE received the Goffman Award again, this time for its effort to make pardons accessible to low-income folks not just in Philadelphia, but across the commonwealth. 

There are very few organizations that have received this award more than once, so it is a wonderful honor for which PLSE is very grateful. We were so very glad to have members of our leadership team from across Pennsylvania present in Hershey to accept the award. Thank you one and all, especially to those all 32 counties where we have now, or are in the process of creating, Pardon Projects! 

Click here to read the PBA press release, the award presentation, and the acceptance speech by Paula Budnick, Secretary of the Pardon Project Steering Committee. 

Back in 2018 when we started the Pardon Project, the pathway to a pardon was “byzantine” and intimidatingly complex. The form was 9 pages long, with 14 pages of instruction written “in dense bureaucratese” (as a Judge would later phrase it).  

Enter Pam Brightbill. When newly-elected Lt Gov John Fetterman decided to make the pardon process more accessible, he looked to Pam to get the job done. She was then just one of several staffers at the Board of Pardons, but she, like the Lieutenant Governor, was passionate about second chances.

Thanks in large measure to her, the application form today is just three pages long (four if there were two cases, five if three and so on), and it and its instructions are written in Plain English. Her changes made it possible for us to train volunteer Pardon Coaches and createPardon Projects across Pennsylvania. 

That’s why we were thrilled when we heard Pam received the PA Bar Association’s “Clarity Award” on May 9 during the PBA’s annual meeting. The Award recognizes “those who have done the most to foster Plain English in the legal field.” In presenting the award, Judge Richard Richard Klein (ret.) noted that over the past 25 years, the other recipients had been well-known judges, law professors and lawyers. Unlike them, he noted, Pam was “working hard and generally invisibly as a civil servant…”

“But what Pam did, through the use of Plain English, was to start a revolution that is today bringing justice to thousands of Pennsylvanians… As a lifetime judge in Pennsylvania’s justice system, I’m honored to present this year’s Clarity Award to a public servant – to Pam Brightbill for her unwavering commitment to justice. Pam, thank you for turning a simple assignment into a catalyst for change, and through the use of Plain English, empowering thousands of deserving Pennsylvanians”

Well and simply said, Judge!  

And what did Pam say in response?

“As we celebrate this achievement, we must also keep in mind that the work is far from finished. There are still so many people and communities facing barriers to justice. May the good people of this Bar and the justice seeking advocates who work tirelessly continue pushing for clarity and simplicity in all aspects of the law.

Thank you again for this honor. I accept it not as a personal achievement, but as a call to action to continue making the clemency process more understandable and available for everyone.”

Right on, Pam! Kudos to you for putting it straight in true and Plain English.

Click here to read Judge Klein and Pam’s complete remarks. 

The West Philly Pardon Network is a first-of-its-kind attempt to “go small” with a big idea: creating multiple Pardon Hubs within a single neighborhood so there are lots of places to go for help in a small area with a high concentration of residents with criminal records. 

Shuja Moore, award winning filmmaker, activist and the brains behind the project, just hired the West Philly Pardon Network’s first coordinator, Adrienne Shaw. 

Adrienne first met Shu on November 4, 2021 at a party in the Arts Ballroom hosted by our partner Uplift Solutions. The event was called “Hardship to Hope: Celebrating the Journey”. Adrienne was among the evening’s honorees, a graduate of the Uplift program. She was honored with the Unparalleled Perseverance Award for “overcoming countless hurdles on her path to success.” 

Accepting the Award, Adrienne spoke to who she is, and the importance of our work:

“As we celebrate this achievement, we must also keep in mind that the work is far from finished. There are still so many people and communities facing barriers to justice. May the good people of this Bar and the justice seeking advocates who work tirelessly continue pushing for clarity and simplicity in all aspects of the law.

Thank you again for this honor. I accept it not as a personal achievement, but as a call to action to continue making the clemency process more understandable and available for everyone.”

More than two years later, Adrienne received her pardon. We are very excited for Adrienne to bring her passion and skill to her role as WPPN’s first Coordinator and we can’t wait to see how many more chains Adrienne will break. 

We don’t deal much with the Department of Corrections because of the post-conviction nature of our work. That’s why it was so wonderful to see our colleagues in Erie get a wonderful write-up in the DOC’s online newsletter, the Correctional Newsfront. The story was about a very successful reentry event that was held in April at Gannon University, titled “The Road Ahead: A Look into the PA Pardons Process.” 

And that’s really it, isn’t it? Every person who gets convicted in PA and completes their sentence should be looking ahead to a pardon, sooner or later. The DOC recognizes how important the potential for pardons is in helping the men and women under carceral control “get corrected” and do well. It is our hope that the Board of Pardons thinks about their work this way too. Instead of re-examining the crime, delving into motivation, and trying to predict whether the person will ever commit another, the BOP ought to follow the DoC’s example and focus on the road taken since the crime, rewarding those who, after some appropriate period of time, can show they plan to complete the journey. 

We that the Board of Pardons reads the DoC’s newsletter and takes its message to heart by recognizing pardons can be a helpful tool that reduces recidivism and aids in rehabilitation.