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Lt. Gov. Stack promotes Pathways to Pardons

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Lt. Gov. Mike Stack speaks about Pathways to Pardons during the public meeting at South Hills Interfaith Movement in Bethel Park.

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Lt. Gov. Mike Stack speaks about Pathways to Pardons during the public meeting at South Hills Interfaith Movement in Bethel Park.

As chairman of the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons, Lt. Gov. Mike Stack is making a concerted effort to let those with criminal records from long ago know what they can do to wipe the slate clean.

“We want to make a clear path of things that you need,” Stack said, “so that if you do them, you have a pretty darn good chance of getting a pardon.”

He and state Sen. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Jefferson Hills, hosted a public meeting Thursday at the South Hills Interfaith Movement Center in Bethel Park to provide information about Pathways to Pardons, an initiative of Stack’s office partnering with various state agencies and legal advocacy groups.

“My view is, more pardons are good for all of us,” he explained, “because it gets people back in the game and gives them the opportunity to meet their full potential.”

Among the speakers at the meeting was Cheryl Andrews, executive director of the Washington Drug and Alcohol Commission Inc., who addressed the obstacles her organization faces in helping people lead addiction-free lifestyles.

“Felonies on people’s records make it extremely difficult for us as far as when we’re working with them to try to find housing or trying to find jobs,” she said. “They want to better themselves and go back to school, and they can’t get financial aid. They can’t choose certain majors, because they’re not able to do internships with the felony background.”

Matt Franchak, Stack’s chief of staff, spoke to the prevalence of substance abuse connected with illegal activity.

“Our statistics from both the Pardons Board and from the Department of Corrections is about 70 percent of people who committed a crime had some type of drug or alcohol addiction when they committed the crime,” he said.

Stack supports providing opportunities for people who have changed their lives for the better to seek pardons, constituting forgiveness by the state, and commutations, or reductions in sentences.

When he took office in 2015, he found that the process of seeking clemency was anything but expedient. For example, applicants for pardons had to wait up to five-and-a-half years for a hearing.

“We’ve cut that in half in a pretty short amount of time,” Stack said. “And we hope to get it to a point where it’s close to under a year.”

At present, the application system is entirely paper-based.

“We’re almost done with an upgrade to the Board of Pardons website,” Franchak said. “So maybe in about a month, applicants will be able to file their applications online. We’re really trying to get that process into the 21st century.”

Also at the meeting, attorney Michael Lee, executive director of Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity, outlined the provisions of a state law that goes into effect Nov. 14 allowing for those who have been convicted of certain crimes to apply for the sealing of their records. The offenses are limited to misdemeanors of the second and third degrees, along with ungraded offenses punishable by no more than two years in prison, with some exceptions, including any offense that requires registration as a sex offender.

As Stack makes visits throughout the state to speak about Pathways to Pardons, he encourages input from members of the public.

“America is the land of second chances,” he said. “And I want to hear the next chapter of everybody’s story. I don’t want to hear the first chapter of something that somebody did a long time ago. I want to hear about all the obstacles people are overcoming, the victories that they’re getting and the achievements they’re making in life.”

For more information, visit www.bop.pa.gov.

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