Haley Barbour column in WAPO – Why I released 26 prisoners

Why I released 26 prisoners

The furor over the pardons I recently granted as governor of Mississippi initially focused on numbers. I would like to set the record straight.

People thought — incorrectly — that I had let 215 prisoners out of jail because the secretary of state reported that many people received clemency.

In fact, 189 of those people were not released from prison. In most cases, they had already been out for many years. These folks are no more a threat to society now than they were the week before I gave them clemency.

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Haley Barbour
Washington Post
1/18/12