Welcome to CAN-DO: justice through clemency
CAN–DO is a 501(c) 3 nonprofit foundation that advocates Clemency for All Non-violent Drug Offenders. CAN-DO has access to numerous cases, many of which are presented on this website. We focus primarily on women because the CAN-DO Founder, Amy Povah, vowed to never forget the women she served time with when she left FCI Dublin, after President Clinton commuted her sentence on July 7, 2000. She lived up to that vow and remains in personal contact, via Corrlinks, (the prison email system) with over 250 prisoners in institutions, nationwide.
CAN-DO is committed to educating the public about the conspiracy law and mandatory sentencing that has led to many cases of injustice where minor participants in a drug conspiracy case receive more time than the kingpin, due to the plea bargain process that provides an escape valve for the most culpable who “cooperate” and punish the least culpable for their inability or unwillingness to provide, “substantial assistance.”
Over the last 30 years, the female prison population has grown by over 800%. The male prison population grew 416% during the same time period. Women are less likely to turn on their significant other, than a man. For this reason, women represent the worst cases of injustice that CAN-DO has encountered. In many cases, all the men in a conspiracy case are already free and the woman is the only person still serving time, even though she was the least culpable, or in some cases, merely guilty by association.
By sharing these cases, CAN-DO hopes to generate public concern that will lead to relief for prisoners via the clemency process. Most of these people have been locked up for decades. Until our drug laws change, the only relief these people have for mercy, is clemency.
In 2013 Amy Ralston Povah started Harm Reduction Productions, a film production company and made her first film about marijuana and the war on drugs called 420-The Documentary which won Best Documentary Feature at the Awareness Film Festival in Santa Monica. Because of her extensive research of cannabis and and victims of the prohibition, Amy increased the CAN-DO umbrella to include assistance to federal prisoners serving time for marijuana that are actively seeking clemency in the form of a commutation of sentence from the President of the United States.
Feel free to browse all of the sections of our website to learn more and to get involved.
