As Barack Obama begins his second term as President of the United States, one can only hope that he will reconsider his apparent unwillingness to grant clemency to some of the more than two million men and women currently incarcerated in our prisons and jails. His record of granting pardons and commutations ranks him as one of the stingiest and least compassionate men ever to serve as chairman and CEO.

In fact, only George Washington, William Henry Harrison and James Garfield used their constitutional power of clemency less than President Obama did in his first term, according to PS Ruckman, Jr. of Rock Valley College in Illinois. Washington probably had few pleas for clemency in the nation’s infancy, when the prison system was sprawling and shapeless. Harrison died of pneumonia in his first month in office, and Garfield was shot four months into his term and later died. President Obama has granted twenty-two pardons and one, one, commutation as he enters his second term. By contrast, Jimmy Carter granted clemency 566 times. Bill Clinton 459 times. Even George W. Bush, derided as callous and uncaring by many on the left, pardoned, commuted or vacated the sentences and convictions of 200 men and women during his presidency.

ProPublica Journalist Dafna Linzer reports that President Obama’s record in considering commutation requests, where the goal is a sentence reduction, is dismal. “Under Reagan and Clinton, commutation applicants had a 1 in 100 chance of success. Under George W. Bush, that dropped to just under 1 in 1,000. Under Obama, an applicant’s chance is less than 1 in 5,000”.

So what is the cause of the President’s reluctance to grant clemency? The answer is not clear. One factor could be clemency attorney Ronald L. Rodgers, who has held that position since 2008. The Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General released a report in December 2012, which found that Mr. Rodgers, the official responsible for investigate and make recommendations to the President on such matters, had failed to convey key information to President Bush in a notable case, and had “engaged in conduct that fell substantially below the high standards expected of employees of the Department of Justice and the duty he owed to the President of the United States.” Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz referred his findings to the Deputy Attorney General for possible “administrative action” against Mr. Rodgers. Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. has not commented publicly on the case, but Mr. Rodgers remains President Obama’s adviser on clemency matters. We may never know why President Obama has refused to grant clemency at a rate comparable to that of his predecessors. This is not what comes to mind when one recalls his campaign slogan, “Change We Can Believe In.”

What we do know is that President Obama was elected through a campaign that promised hope and change, promising renewed attention to America’s downtrodden and downtrodden populations. During his second inaugural address, he surprised and delighted many by referencing America’s LGBT populations, equating Stonewall and Selma, a cry that seemed consistent with the ideals of equality and compassion that led many to vote for him first. America’s prison population, which, again, includes more than two million men and women, could certainly use some of the same attention. There are more Americans in prison than at any other time in our history, and our incarceration rate exceeds that of any other nation on the planet.

A Buddhist friend tells me that when President Obama was sworn in in 2009, he wore under his jacket a ceremonial scarf given to him by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, whom Obama would soon join as Nobel Peace Prize laureate. . Ironically, one of the first orders the Dalai Lama gave when he became leader of Tibet was to “release the prisoners,” granting general clemency to all. While such an act is not possible in our complex society, the contrast is a bit surprising. Who would have imagined that Barack Obama could go down in history as our least compassionate president.

It’s not too late, Mr President. There is still hope for change, change we can believe in.