Prior to Christmas, Pope Francis has requested a "gesture of clemency" for jail inmates.
In a letter to the Heads of State, he requests that they make a symbolic gesture "towards our brothers and sisters who are deprived of their liberty and who are held eligible to benefit from such a provision. So that this time marked by tensions, injustice and conflicts may be opened to the grace that comes from the Lord.”
The appeal for clemency for prisoners stems back to the Great Jubilee Year 2000, when St. Pope John Paul II wrote an 11-page paper for the Jubilee in Prisons requesting a pardon for inmates from the world's leaders.
A week later, on 9 July, Pope John Paul II visited Rome's Regina Coeli prison as part of the Jubilee of Prisoners. In the name of Jesus, who was "imprisoned, mocked, judged, and condemned," he asked "competent authorities" for a reduction of the sentence to allow prisoners to build a new life once released.
During his 14 November 2002 visit to the Italian Parliament, he reiterated this proposal to senators and deputies he met. Following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Pope Francis has expressed his closeness to prison inmates during a series of apostolic visits and other occasions, along with the Holy Thursday foot-washing ceremony.
During the 2016 Holy Year of Mercy, on the occasion of the Jubilee of Convicts on November 6, he urged governments to offer prisoners "an act of clemency" during the Angelus following Mass in St. Peter's Basilica with prisoners.
On that occasion, Pope Francis issued a petition "for the improvement of living circumstances in prisons around the world, so that the human dignity of prisoners is completely honoured."
He also contemplated "the necessity for a criminal justice system that is not solely punishing, but is open to hope and the possibility of reintegrating the offender into society." He stated,
“In a special way, I submit for the consideration of the competent civil authorities of every country the possibility that, in this Holy Year of Mercy, an act of clemency be carried out for those prisoners who are held to be eligible to benefit from such a provision.”