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White House Grants Clemency to 46 Non-Violent Drug Offenders
Obama says "Their punishments didn't fit the crime."
Barack Obama announced that he commuted 46 sentencesfor non-violent federal drug offenders, as part of the administration’s larger push to reduce the prison population and alleviate the effects of past harsh sentencing laws.
The decision comes as Obama prepares for his visit to a federal prisonon July 16—which would make him the first sitting president to do so. Tomorrow, he will speak at a convention for US civil rights organization the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), where he said he will lay out his ideas for criminal justice reform.
“Their punishments didn’t fit the crime,” Obama says in a White HouseFacebook video about the commutations. “I believe that America is a nation of second chances.”
BREAKING: President Obama just granted clemency to 46 men and women whose sentences didn't fit their crimes. Nearly all of these individuals would have already served their time and returned to society if they were convicted of the exact same crime today: http://go.wh.gov/KtwU7f
Posted by The White House on Monday, July 13, 2015
To date, Obama has commuted nearly 90 sentences, most of them for non-violent drug offenses. More than 35,000 inmates applied for clemency since the administration announced its intention to commute sentences for drug crimes.
Nearly half of federal prisoners are serving time for drug offenses, and many receive mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses according to harsh laws enacted during the war on drugs in the 1980s.
The president sent out letters to each of the 46 people granted clemency, warning them of upcoming hardships, and wishing them good luck:
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