I was watching an episode of the well-respected news magazine “60 Minutes.” The particular episode was about California’s first version of its “Three Strikes Law”; aired in May of 2000. The governor at the time, Grey Davis was being interviewed and was asked to justify a 25-year-to-life sentence handed down to Jed Harlon Miller who stole a bicycle, as his third strike, two days after California passed its strict Three Strikes Law in 1994. The governor failed in his attempt to justify such a harsh sentence. But as more than 3000 prisoners were caught up in this draconian law before the California voters amended it in 2012. But this injustice gave me an idea.

With the power of clemency we could eliminate a lot of this kind of justice/injustice. But the power to grant clemency/pardon is controlled by political and judicial forces. I soon learned by reading California’s Constitution that only a Constitutional Amendment could cause a change in the law to grant clemency on a state level.

“California Clemency” as I have designed it, offers a comprehensive approach to prison reform based on the power of clemency in our criminal justice system.

This approach in no way is intended to overlook the great strides and actions by our current governor Gavin Newsom to reform California’s prison system. I think he gets it.

But more must be done to have real prison reform and it is spelled out on this website.