FreedomWorks recently announced the launch of the American Freedom Initiative (AFI), a collaboration headed by former acting U.S. Attorney General Matt Whitaker. This project aims to help relieve injustices committed against Americans under the criminal justice system and the regulatory state. As part of this project, we will shine a spotlight on some of the individuals the AFI has identified under its National Pardon Project as being particularly hard hit by unjustly harsh criminal sentences for non-violent crimes.

In the past few weeks, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has continued to prove that he is a leader when it matters. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, bill after bill has been rushed through Congress, without ample input from members and with too many items in them to be good.

For decades, our nation has been over-incarcerating individuals who run afoul of the law in a number of different ways. Oftentimes, the things that individuals run afoul of and are incarcerated for should either not be criminal laws at all, or should not be punished criminally to the degree that they are.

FreedomWorks recently announced the launch of the American Freedom Initiative (AFI), a collaboration headed by former acting U.S. Attorney General Matt Whitaker. This project aims to help relieve injustices committed against Americans under the criminal justice system and the regulatory state. As part of this project, we will shine a spotlight on some of the individuals the AFI has identified under its National Pardon Project as being particularly hard hit by unjustly harsh criminal sentences for non-violent crimes.

Just as the coronavirus pandemic is not an excuse for legislatures to pass irresponsible measures in the name of protecting their citizenry, the coronavirus pandemic is also not an excuse for these same legislatures to forego their responsibilities to continue working on unrelated issues. Once the current state of affairs has passed, citizens will return to their daily patterns and elected officials to their posts taking care of issues unrelated to coronavirus.

Last week, President Trump extended clemency to nearly a dozen Americans. Much contention has arisen around those who he chose to pardon and commute the sentences of, but there are a few simple truths that undergird the whole process and remain true, no matter who clemency is given to. Chief among these is that, in order to pursue justice, prison sentences should be no more excessive than necessary to fit the crime -- That is, to provide proper measures for punitive purposes, for any victims’ purposes, and importantly for rehabilitative purposes.