President Obama will make his mark on history, even with a Congress that fights his every move. He's making his last months in office count. Like commuting the federal sentences of 214 people, the most presidential commutations issued in a single day since 1900.
The commutations are the latest in a series of such reprieves issued by Obama after announcing his support in 2014 for a clemency review process to address those serving harsh sentences that they would not be subject to if convicted today. The Clemency Project has led Obama to grant a series of such commutations beginning in July 2015.
"This is a good day — not just for the 214 individuals who are getting a hard-earned second chance, but for the people at the White House and the Department of Justice and at advocacy organizations across the country who work every day to remedy injustices in our sentencing laws," White House counsel Neil Eggleston told BuzzFeed News. "We're going to keep our foot on the gas pedal when it comes to reviewing applications for clemency, but we are also going to need leaders in both parties in Congress to pass long overdue reforms to our criminal justice system to achieve lasting change on the scale that is needed." […]
"Today's historic announcement is yet another step in the Administration's efforts to restore proportionality to unnecessarily long drug sentences," Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates told BuzzFeed News. "In just the first eight months of 2016, the president has more than doubled the number of commutations granted in all of 2015. But we are not done yet, and we expect that many more men and women will be given a second chance through the Clemency Initiative."
As of today, he has commuted the sentences of 562 people. Today's commutations are for mostly nonviolent drug crimes, including 67 prisoners who had life sentences. It's not a "get out of jail free" card for most of these 214 people. Some will be released by the end of the year, some have had their sentences shortened but will still serve the next one or two years, some will have release conditioned on participation in drug treatment programs.