By The Vanguard Staff
WASHINGTON DC – A television commercial reminding President Joe Biden to honor his commitment to “significant decarceration” by immediately using his clemency power to prevent thousands of people from being sent back to federal prison will run on major news networks, sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union and Families Against Mandatory Minimums.
The groups said the six-figure spot buy with run on CNN and MSNBC, and Delaware media market during Biden’s upcoming Labor Day break.
The first commercial ran Sunday on Meet the Press, and is targeted to show next week on CNN and MSNBC.
The ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Onuqtn6f_k
About 4,000 were released to serve their sentences under the CARES Act by the Trump administration after the federal Bureau of Prisons decided the incarcerated were no danger to public safety. Those particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 were given a priority.
Data shows that less than one percent have violent the conditions of release since they’ve gone home to united with friends, families and gone back to school or work
However, the Biden Administration – despite Biden’s campaign promises – could now be sent back to prison when the COVID threat is over. That would lead to as many as 4,000 people flooding the prison system, and be one of “largest single acts expanding the federal prison population to date,” said the ACLU.
“It’s time for President Biden to grant clemency to these men and women and keep them home. President Biden campaigned on the promise of second chances, and made it clear to the ACLU that he will be committed to reducing the federal prison population,” said Udi Ofer, director of the ACLU’s Justice Division.
“Now that he is in office, the president has the opportunity to act on this commitment by using his clemency powers to correct the harms created by decades of racist policies that have led to the unjust and disproportionate incarceration of Black and Brown people. Forcing thousands of people to go back to prison would be cruel, legally unnecessary, would not make us safer, and would cost taxpayers millions of dollars,” he added.
The star of the commercial is Jesse Rodriguez, a Latinx man who was given home confinement after the CARES Act passed in March 2020. He served nearly eight years of a 14-year prison sentence on drug charges. He’s now back home in Texas serving the rest of his sentence in home confinement.
“When I was released on home confinement I didn’t believe it was really happening until the moment that I walked out of the Big Spring facility on July 15, 2020. I have a new life with a committed and supportive family. I would never have been able to do this without the opportunity that home confinement provided me and my family,” said Rodriguez.
“I have full-time employment in HVAC, an active parenting role in my children’s lives, and am currently working towards a bachelor’s degree at Odessa College. To be sent back would be a disservice to myself, society, and most importantly my family,” he added.
A poll released by the ACLU last year found widespread support for the president to use clemency authority to correct past injustices.
“We’re grateful to Jesse and his family for helping us show what’s at stake for thousands of families across the country,” said Kevin Ring, FAMM president. “And we’re thankful that the ACLU is going to make sure that President Biden and our political leaders can’t hide from their responsibility to keep these people home.”
