WASHINGTON — President Obama on Wednesday commuted the sentences of 61 federal prisoners convicted of drug and firearm crimes, extending his efforts to reshape a criminal justice sentencing system he has said is unduly harsh, unfair to minorities and outdated.
More than a third of the prisoners who will soon be released were serving life in prison as a result of federal sentencing laws that imposed severe punishments for the distribution of cocaine and other drugs. Mr. Obama has now commuted the sentences of 248 prisoners, more than the total commuted by the previous six presidents combined, administration officials said.
“Most of them are low-level drug offenders whose sentences would have been shorter if they were convicted under today’s laws,” Mr. Obama said on Wednesday in a post on his Facebook page. “I believe America is a nation of second chances, and with hard work, responsibility, and better choices, people can change their lives and contribute to our society.”
After the announcement of the new commutations, Mr. Obama met with a handful of federal prisoners whose sentences had previously been commuted to discuss how effectively they managed to re-enter society. In a video posted on Facebook along with his statement, Mr. Obama invited the group to lunch to discuss the issue.
Last summer, Obama commuted the sentences of 46 convicted of drug crimes, the largest mass of pardons since the 1960’s.
WASHINGTON — President Obama granted clemency Monday to 46 men and women who faced decades in prison for non-violent, drug offenses, part of an overall effort to address sentencing disparities nationwide.
"Their punishments didn't fit the crime, and if they had been sentenced under today's laws, nearly all of them would have already served their time," Obama said in an announcement video posted on the White House website.
The 46 commutations — the most granted by a president in a single day since at least the Lyndon Johnson administration of the 1960s — all involved drug crimes, mostly cocaine trafficking.
The prisoners will all be released by Nov. 10.
Let’s hear it for President Obama and hope he uses his pardon and clemency powers liberally and uses his bully pulpit to encourage 50 State Governors to follow his lead and free these Americans who’ve done nothing more than non violent drug offenses and being in possession of substances in common use today.