PDF Executive inaction: States and the federal government fail to use commutations as a release mechanism
This report finds that the U.S. President and state executive branches in eight northeastern states chronically underuse their commutation powers. The sampled states reported granting just 210 commutations from 2005 through mid-2021, for a total average of 13 grants a year across the eight states. For comparison, the average total prison population across these eight states from 2005 to 2020 was about 130,000 — meaning that each year, this group of states commuted about one out of every 10,000 sentenced and imprisoned individuals. In fact, five of the states each reported granting just five commutations or fewer over the 16.5 years. And concerningly, almost no states in the sample increased their rate of commutations during the pandemic, at a time when reducing prison populations is critical to save lives.
In addition to granting few commutations, most of the states in the sample do not appear to maintain robust data on their commutation systems.