Records Can Too.

About the Pennsylvania Pardon Project

Origins

From 2017 to 2025, the Pardon Project was an initiative of Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity (PLSE).  It began when Tobey Oxholm was first a volunteer staff attorney and he remains at its helm. It grew from an adjunct to PLSE’s expungement services for its Philadelphia clients to direct services in a few Episcopalian parishes and then, thanks largely to the coronavirus and Zoom, to Pittsburgh, then Scranton, then Harrisburg, and then to volunteer Pardon Projects in over 30 counties. It was separately incorporated in 2025 to serve the state when PLSE was restructured and restricted its services to Philadelphia.

Mission and Vision

The Pennsylvania Pardon Project was formed to provide statewide leadership in bringing hope and the good news about pardons to low-income people and communities that are kept in “paper prisons” by the stigma and barriers created by criminal history records; to organize those communities into powerful voices for systemic change[ and to bring awareness to elected officials so that they recognize pardons and record-clearing for what they really are: no-cost workforce development and community investment policies that free individuals to pursue their potential.

We look forward to creating a society that does not forever judge people by the worst choices they have ever made in their lives, but believes in correction, change and redemption, and rewards persistence and best efforts with forgiveness, acceptance and fresh starts.

Problem We Aim to Solve

Pennsylvania has historically been one of the top five states in the country in the percentage of its people who have been arrested and convicted of crimes. That is hundreds of thousands of people, disproportionately low-income and people of color. “Clean Slate” does not erase them: it only hides certain records from the general public most of the time. Criminal history records are always there in a permanent, online record, ready to ruin futures at the worst time, unless and until they are expunged by a judge; and under Pennsylvania law, judges can only expunge the records of people who are 70 or older or dead for three years, unless the Governor has first pardoned them.

Thanks to persistence and focus,  the pathway to a pardon has been made straight. Now the mission is to make sure that those who have convictions realize that they can in fact have a bright future and get the help they need to apply, and to have a governmental  system that speedily recognizes and rewards demonstrated redemption and change.

Goals

1. Each and every year, expunge (erase) the criminal history records of at least 4,000 low-income Pennsylvanians, freeing them to pursue their potentials for the good of themselves, their families and their communities.
2. Reduce the time for obtaining an expungement of convictions for misdemeanors and felonies from eleven years (as it was in October 2025) to an average of 2-3 years.
3. Have the Legislature and the Governor and Legislature agree that pardons are a priority, adequately funding the system so it can promptly process the applicants and then making the final decision within ninety days of the recommendation by the Board of Pardons.

Strategies

We are focused on demonstrating to Elected Officials at the local and state levels the importance of pardons to their individual constituents, to the financial health of the neighborhoods in which they live, and to the readiness of the Pennsylvania workforce to meet the needs of our whole state. Pardons will thereby become a matter of self-interest for those political leaders, and they will champion the attention, access and enthusiastic support that this movement deserves.

Board of Directors

Jeff Brown, Executive Chairman, former President & Chief Executive Officer, Brown’s Super Stores Inc., founder of Uplift Solutions, Inc., and former Chair of the statewide Workforce Development Board– fourth generation grocer and tireless advocate for social and racial justice, nationally known for having brought grocery stores to food deserts and recipient of the Philadelphia Innovation Award for “Social Investors: Innovative Investor Strategies” in 2022 for being the first employer in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to offer criminal record expungement services to all his employees. 

Paula Budnick, longtime Corporate Assistant Director of Resources for Human Development, proud graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and beneficiary of the Bread Upon The Waters Fellowship (for which she remains a Mentor), longtime Board President of Harwood House and member of the Board of Advisors of Manifesto House, founding Secretary of the Pardon Project Steering Committee of which she was an inaugural Member, and pardon recipient.

Brian Gorman, Esq., very longtime legal aid warrior, Executive Director of Summit Legal Aid in southwestern PA, member of the Board of Directors of Harmony Life Center, the LeMoyne Multicultural Community Center and the Washington County Opioid Overdose Coalition; co-founder of the Pardon Project of Washington County, and Secretary, Pennsylvania Association of Pardon Projects.

Antonio Howard, Peggy’s son, widely appreciated and multiple award-winning community muralist and activist, artist, and author, powerful advocate for restorative justice, recipient of Erie Arts & Culture’s Emerging Artist Award and the Liberty Bell Award from the Erie County Bar Association, co-founder and Director, Pardon Project of Erie County, and former juvenile lifer with a powerful and inspiring story of change.

Hon. Timothy K. Lewis, Partner, Blank Rome LLP,  long and distinguished career in the law including former Assistant District Attorney for Allegheny County, former Assistant U.S. Attorney, former Judge of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and tireless advocate for equal justice and pardons. 

Judy Price, Esq., Attorney in private practice and former First Deputy District Attorney, Lackawanna County, and co-Founder, Pardon Project of Lackawanna County, and recipient of many awards for public service including Lackawanna/Susquehanna Drug & Alcohol Office Person of the Year and the Pro Bono Award from the Pennsylvania Bar Association.

Bishop Michelle Anne Simmons, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Why Not Prosper, Inc., serving clients in Philadelphia and Dauphin Counties, recipient of many awards for exemplary public service including the Hon. Frederica Massiah-Jackson Community Justice Engagement Award from the Philadelphia Bar Association and the Outstanding Leadership and Accomplishment Award from the Philadelphia Reentry Coalition; transformative Chair Emerita of the Pardon Project Steering Committee, and pardon recipient.

Pardon Project Steering Committee

Executive Committee:

Zach Keasling, Chair, Cumberland County
Angel Fox, Vice Chair, Dauphin County
Tom Cook, Vice Chair, Wyoming County
Anna Morcheid, Secretary, Westmoreland County, pardon recipient
Danea Banks, Philadelphia County, pardon recipient
Paula Budnick, Delaware County, pardon recipient
Akeem Sims, Immediate Past Chair, Philadelphia County, pardon recipient
Bishop Michelle Anne Simmons, Chair Emerita, pardon recipient

About Tobey Oxholm

Graduating from Harvard University in 1979 with two degrees (JD, cum laude, from the Harvard Law School and Master of Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government), Carl (Tobey) Oxholm III began his legal practice in Philadelphia where he practiced commercial litigation. His legal career included five years as Chief Deputy City Solicitor for the City of Philadelphia and six years as General Counsel of Drexel University before he became its Executive Vice President. Always a champion of legal services to the indigent, he was a leader of the Public Interest legal community in Philadelphia for over 20 years. A long-time trustee of Community Legal Services, Board Chair of Juvenile Law Project, and officer of the Philadelphia Bar Association, he was a co-founder of Philadelphia VIP, the Homeless Advocacy Project, the Consumer Bankruptcy Assistance Project, the Bar Association’s Public Interest Section, and the Public Interest Program Advisory Committee at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, as well as the founding director of Drexel’s law school which requires at least 50 hours of pro bono service to graduate.

After fourteen years serving in senior leadership positions in higher education, he “retired” in 2016 to Gouldsboro, Wayne County, to offer alternative dispute resolution services. There, he founded (in 2017) and served (until July 2026) as the President and Executive Director of Pro Bono Partnerships, the “low bono” project of the Wayne County Bar Association, and he continues to serve as a member of the Diversity and Alternative Dispute Resolution Committees of the Monroe County Bar Association. It was also there in 2017 that he began volunteering (remotely) for Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity and first learned about, and was shocked by, “rap sheets” and how they acted as permanent sources of prejudice and barriers to potential.

He has received many awards for exemplary public service, including appointment by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to the IOLTA Board, the Pro Bono Publico Award from the American Bar Association, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation, the Bar Medal from the Philadelphia Bar Association, and, most recently, the Mighty Oak Award from Outreach – Center for Community Resources in Scranton.