State secretary works to revitalize pardon system
With a prior history in the criminal system and experience working through bureaucracy, the secretary of the state Board of Pardons, said he is working to revitalize the pardon system at the Lycoming Tri-County NAACP dinner Thursday.
Secretary Brandon Flood, himself, was pardoned only a few weeks before moving into the state administrator job in January.
“For anyone that’s familiar with clemency at all, whatever you knew about clemency prior to Jan. 2019, forget it. We’re ushering in a new — not only administration — but a new cultural shift,” he said.
For the last 20 years, the process of clemency and commutation, or the elimination of previous convictions and the adjustment of a sentence, respectively, has been arduous. Taking an average of five years and mountain of paperwork, most convicts and ex-convicts dismissed that route.
Flood said he wants to reverse that trend.
Being a repeat offender on charges of possession with intent to distribute and owning a gun without a license, Flood said he once hoped he’d be transferred to a federal prison to become a better criminal. Instead, he worked through the ranks of state government thanks to the programing in the Chester area prison.
Through that process, Flood said he has digitized the application for pardons, as well as taken out the legal language or that which was deemed unneeded. The estimated time for appeal has been lowered to 2.5 years.
Additionally the department is working on a webinar to help those with prior charges correctly fill out the application to avoid time-consuming setbacks.
“There is a pathway to redemption,” he said. “Don’t let other people or external factors define you.”
Paige Bingham, founder of Community Connection, said she considered establishing NAACP and the resources it brings into the Williamsport area as a civic duty.
“It’s a means of increasing the economic stability of the community, when we are able to help those who are in trouble with some legal issues,” she said. “We may help them get those cleared up.”
A larger presence in the city would not only allow for them to tell their stories, but help with other issues such as employer disputes, said Bingham.
“These things can be mitigated with some translation on cultural differences,” she said.
Lisa E. Williams, regional president of the NAACP, said she hopes to grow the organization in the city.
“In order for us to do that we need membership. So we need people to get involved, we need to hear their voices so that we can carry on with further programs,” she said. “My hope is that the Williamsport area community can come together.”