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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.”
Updated at 4:36 p.m.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/299681-obama-commutes-sentences-of-inmates
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/299681-obama-commutes-sentences-of-inmates
I DON'T RESPECT THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT WHEN PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY DISRESPECT OUR FLAG WHICH MEN AND WOMEN DIED FOR; OR FOR OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM. OBAMA HAS NOT DONE ONE THING TO HALT THESE INCIDENTS, BUT HE IS TOO BUSY PLAYING GOLF. YOU DON'T NEED TO GIVE ME A GOVERNMENT EDUCATION -- SEE I PAID FOR MINE AT HARVARD WITHOUT THE ASSISTANCE OF THE GOVERNMENT. YUK
Obama is the WORST POUS we ever had!!! 
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