Josh Smith, 51, spent this past Christmas in prison. Just like he did for five years after being caught at the age of 21 in possession of a kilogram of cocaine and 150 pounds of marijuana. The difference? Smith wasn’t behind bars anymore. A year ago this month, he was sworn in as deputy director of the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), one of the world’s largest prison systems.

During the holidays, he made three unannounced prison visits with his wife to thank corrections officers for reporting to work and sacrificing their family time. Just showing up also meant that prison wardens didn’t have a chance “to start painting any walls” or do other tidying up before Smith arrived, he told me.

The next big stop of the holidays was another sign of how much Smith’s life has turned around: He rang in the new year at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. It was the president who pardoned Smith in 2021 during the last week of Trump’s first term, almost two decades after Smith completed his prison sentence.

The White House said Smith had “dedicated his life to his faith and to his community” and to “making prison ‘a place of transformation’ ” through his Fourth Purpose Foundation, which advocates for criminal justice reform. The pardon was supported by Tennessee’s governor, other top state officials, and “numerous other community and faith leaders.”

“What stood out from the beginning was not just that he rebuilt his own life, but how seriously he has taken the responsibility to help others do the same,” said Alice Marie Johnson, another former federal inmate who received a pardon from Trump in 2020 and is now the White House “pardon czar.”...