{"id":288107,"date":"2026-09-17T12:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T12:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/288107\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T12:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T12:26:09","slug":"one-of-a-kind-lehigh-county-pardon-coordinator-job-could-become-full-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/288107\/","title":{"rendered":"One-of-a-kind Lehigh County pardon coordinator job could become full time"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Lehigh County program that helps indigent nonviolent offenders wipe their criminal records clean could get a boost in the 2027 budget.<\/p>\n

Chief Public Defender Kimberly Makoul appeared before the county commissioners during Wednesday\u2019s budget hearing<\/a> seeking $63,541 to turn the part-time pardon coordinator position into a full-time job. Lehigh is the only county in the state that funds a pardon coordinator within the public defender\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

The funding increase would cover both the coordinator\u2019s salary and benefits. In her pitch for the increase, Makoul pointed to studies which showed that persons who attain pardons increase their earning power 25% in two years and make a positive impact on their local economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo help those people get pardons is a fiscally sound decision because we\u2019re helping those people become better earners. They are able to patronize businesses within our county, they are able to purchase homes, which means they are able to pay taxes,\u201d Makoul said.<\/p>\n

Launched in 2023, Lehigh County\u2019s Pardon Project helps low-income residents who pleaded guilty to nonviolent crimes and completed their sentences at least five years ago navigate the lengthy pardons process.<\/a><\/p>\n

So far, the program has identified 156 qualified candidates, and one person has been granted a pardon. It can take more than five years to get an audience before the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons, which sends recommendations for pardons to the governor.<\/p>\n

Makoul said there has been an increase in applicants this year, as more people learn about the project through her office\u2019s community outreach efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe word is getting out,\u201d she said. \u201cTo do the service the way it needs to be done, we need to turn that position into a full-time position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commissioner Phillips Armstrong, who was county executive when the Pardon Project started, noted that people who have been granted pardons have historically low recidivism rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not too many programs that can say that 98% of the time, these people don\u2019t end up back in jail,\u201d Armstrong said.<\/p>\n

There are several laws on the books to help people with criminal pasts reenter society.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Pennsylvania became the first state to pass a Clean Slate Law, which automatically hid millions of criminal records from public view. In 2023, Gov. Josh Shapiro signed an update, Clean Slate 3.0, which expanded the law to seal nonviolent drug and property felonies after 10 years without a new crime.<\/p>\n

However, while Clean Slate hides crimes from much of the public, only a pardon can erase records that may hinder a person from getting a job or being approved for housing, Makoul said.<\/p>\n

There are two more hearings scheduled before the budget, which calls for a 17% tax increase, is voted on in late October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Lehigh County program that helps indigent nonviolent offenders wipe their criminal records clean could get a boost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,182,139,432],"class_list":["post-288107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}