The Connecticut Board of Pardons and Paroles (BOPP) recently announced that it was halting the commutations process for people currently serving time in Connecticut's prisons and jails. This decision, which ultimately strips people of the opportunity to be considered for having their sentence reduced, is devastating for currently incarcerated people and their loved ones, and it runs contrary to community health, safety, and racial justice. Mandatory minimum sentences, for instance, disproportionately hurt Black and Latinx people because of systemic racism in the criminal legal system -- and the BOPP's decision takes away the chance for people serving mandatory minimums to be considered for a sentence commutation.
Every person should have a chance at hope. The criminal legal system should be open to the idea of redemption and rehabilitation. The ACLU of Connecticut, together with many other civil rights groups, legal organizations, and advocates, wrote to the BOPP to demand they stop the senseless end to commutations in our state, because people deserve hope.
