Presidents can do this?
I did not know that.
Unfortunately yes.
They are free to do it at any time. Too many of them “load up on pardons” just before they leave office. So they don’t face political blowback.
If the pardons were justified in the first place, there would be no shame in releasing these convicts and there would be every reason to see that someone who was wrongfully or overreachingly convicted is turned loose in a timely manner, NOT having to wait until January of the final month of service of a President.