Christmas is often described as the season of mercy, forgiveness, and redemption. For a handful of prisoners each year, that description has even greater meaning. Governors traditionally use the holiday season as a thematic backdrop for pardons, and last month was no different.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder issued one for Lukasz Niec, a legal immigrant who faced deportation by ICE for two misdemeanor convictions when he was a teenager in the early 1990s. Tennessee’s Bill Haslam pardoned seven people in the state’s prisons and reduced the sentences of four others. Arkansas’ Asa Hutchinson wiped away 14 people’s convictions and reduced a prisoner’s sentence to make him immediately eligible for parole.

Governors in most states have the power to pardon or commute sentences, either at their sole discretion or with some level of input from a commission. Since most convictions occur at the state level, some governors can wield even greater influence on criminal justice than the president can. But most governors rarely use this power, and few have made it a mainstay of their tenure in office—a major missed opportunity for justice and the public good.

Some outgoing governors were particularly resistant. New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, a former prosecutor, issued only three pardons during her two terms in office and added new restrictions to deter applicants. Florida Governor Rick Scott turned the state’s clemency system into a hopeless slog. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker issued no pardons during his eight years in power, and in one of his final official acts, he signed a bill requiring state officials to keep a list of pardoned people who commit subsequent crimes and the governor who pardoned them.

All three of those governors hail from the Republican Party, which traditionally favored tough-on-crime policies. But even Democratic governors can be stingy. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo made headlines last month when he pardoned 22 immigrants who faced deportation or couldn’t apply for citizenship because of previous state convictions. The pardons gave Cuomo a chance to cast himself as a leading figure in the Democratic resistance to President Trump. But with almost 200,000 New Yorkers in prison, probation, or parole, issuing fewer than two dozen pardons is hardly a courageous act.