The criminal justice system learns from its mistakes and evolves. New laws, policies, and practices recognize that yesterday's legal framework produced excessive, often cruel, sentences.

The system acknowledges change, then slams the courthouse door on the very people those changes should help.

New laws promise fairness. Old procedural rules make sure many never receive it.

Thousands remain imprisoned under sentences today's justice system rejects.

There is no parole in the federal system.

Clemency exists because strict adherence to the law can sometimes produce a legally sound but morally disproportionate punishment. While courts are bound by rigid statutes and precedent, clemency allows the president to act.

Additionally, although many are serving unusually long sentences that are grossly inconsistent with today's standards of fairness, others are serving unjust sentences because of systemic inequities in the modern criminal justice system.

Executive Clemency is the Constitution's answer to the inevitable failures of the criminal justice system.

Clemency doesn't require Congress. It doesn't require another election. It doesn't require waiting.

A president can act immediately.