September 14, 2024, Pittsburgh, PA – Social justice advocates from all over the state gathered in Pittsburgh’s Market Square And Philadelphia’s City Hall on Friday to fight for changes to Pennsylvania’s Board of Pardons. Leaders from Let’s Get Free and Coalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration held a public event to demand transparency in what is a hidden process. Their demands centered on the need to overhaul the state’s commutation process, an issue where the board is slow to act despite even Governor Josh Shapiro openly stating the process is broken.
Pennsylvania is known for its harsh sentencing laws, one of few states that offers no parole option for individuals serving life sentences and only trails Florida in the number of individuals serving Life without Parole, also known as LWOP or Death by Incarceration (DBI). With state senators who, for years, have failed to make both moral and fiscal responsibility a priority by-passing common-sense reform. Commutation is the only hope for release, and that hope is minimal. “The chances of winning the lottery is greater than having your sentence commuted” stated etta cetera of Let’s Get Free, an organization who specializes in women and transgender prisoners but who fights for all.