In 2021, Governor Kathy Hochul promised that she would begin to grant clemencies on a rolling basis, a departure from previous governors who typically granted clemencies only at the end of each year.
But as Sara Kielly, a 36-year-old woman incarcerated at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, told Hell Gate, "rolling clemency turned out to mean my app just 'rolling over to next year.'"
The state constitution grants the governor the executive power to issue clemencies in the form of commutations, which reduce the length of a person's prison sentence, or as a pardon, which apply to those who have already served their sentences and removes a conviction’s collateral consequences, including deportation.
This past August, Hochul announced her first 2025 clemencies—13 pardons and no commutations. Since taking office, Hochul has granted 90 pardons and 17 commutations. According to Hochul’s press office, there are 1,175 pending commutation applications and 608 pending pardon applications.
At first, women in the state's prisons were hopeful about their chances for commutation under New York's first female governor, especially one who has publicly voiced her support for domestic violence survivors. Many had hoped that support would extend to survivors incarcerated for acts committed while defending themselves against an abusive loved one, or offenses that an abuser had coerced them into committing.
Now, said Kielly, "when you mention a clemency application around here, or that you hope that she'll follow through on her promises, people roll their eyes."