Obama commutes sentences of 102 inmates
By Jordan Fabian - 10/06/16 04:07 PM EDT
President Obama on Thursday commuted the sentences of
102 inmates, the White House announced.
Obama has commuted the sentences of 744 individuals, more than the
past 11 presidents combined, according to the White House.
Thursday’s announcement brings the total number granted this year
alone to 590, more than any single year in U.S. history.
“These statistics make clear that the president and his
administration have succeeded in efforts to reinvigorate the
clemency process,” White House counsel Neil Eggleston wrote in a
blog post. “Beyond the statistics, though, are stories of
individuals who have overcome the longest of odds to earn this
second chance.”
The latest round of commutations is part of the Obama
administration’s effort to free prisoners serving lengthy sentences
doled out during the government’s war on drugs.
With just three months left in office, Obama is accelerating the use
of his clemency power. Obama in August handed out commutations to
325 inmates — including 214 on Aug. 3, the
largest single-day total since 1900.
That alone nearly doubled the number of commutations granted during
Obama’s presidency.
Obama first launched a clemency initiative in 2014 to review
sentences of non-violent drug offenders who would receive shorter
prison terms under today’s guidelines.
It’s part of the president’s broader push to reform the criminal
justice system.
Facing pressure from reform advocates to pick up the pace of
commutations, the administration has tweaked its strategy to
accommodate more inmates.
He has shortened some inmates’ sentences without immediately
releasing them, leaving them years left to serve. That has allowed
Obama to grant commutations to prisoners who have committed more
serious offenses.
For example, 28 of the 35 inmates serving life in prison had their
sentences reduced to between 15 and 30 years. Only seven will be
released in the next two years.
A larger number of inmates convicted of gun charges have received
clemency from Obama, according to a
USA Today review.
Thirty inmates in the latest batch have firearm-related
convictions.
The commutations are increasingly seen as a last-ditch
effort for Obama to reduce prison sentences he sees as
unjust.
But the prospects appear slim that Congress will pass a
broader criminal-justice reform bill before the president
leaves office.
Eggleston urged Congress to pass a sentencing reform bill in
the lame-duck session after the November elections.
“Commutations can be a powerful tool to rectify specific
cases, but the individualized nature of this relief
highlights the need for bipartisan criminal justice reform
legislation,” he wrote.
“Only the passage of legislation can achieve the broader
reforms needed to ensure our federal sentencing system
operates more fairly and effectively in the service of
public safety.”
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/299681-obama-commutes-sentences-of-inmates |