Thanks to many reforms over the past 3 years and the new attitude about pardons, the Board of Pardons (BOP) is being overwhelmed by applications. BOP Secretary Celeste Trusty has asked all Pardon Coaches and Pardon Projects in the state to write our Senators and Representatives to urge them to advocate for increasing the BOP’s budget, so it can hire more administrative assistants to process and file the applications – a process that is now taking 16 months and will only get worse unless they get more staff.