President Obama grants his last 330 commutations to nonviolent drug offenders

The good news here is also the bad news:

[O]n Thursday, his last full day in office, Obama announced 330 more commutations, bringing his total number of clemencies to 1,715. He has granted commutations to more people than the last 12 presidents combined, including 568 inmates with life sentences

That “last full day in office” part, that’s very bad. But 330 and 1,715—while large numbers compared with the last 12 presidents, as reported—are also a drop in the bucket of nonviolent drug offenders serving disproportionately long sentences:

“It’s fantastic that the President is using his last days in office to continue to grant clemency to deserving prisoners,” said Julie Stewart, founder and chairman of the board of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, which has been fighting for 18 years for clemency for drug offenders sentenced under the harsh drug laws of the 1980s and 1990s.

“But my heart aches for those who will not make the cut,” Stewart said. “After over two years of believing they may have a chance for freedom, they now see that door of hope closing. I can’t imagine what the pall in the prisons will feel like on January 20th when President Obama leaves office.”

Obama has done so much, and yet it is still heartbreaking to see what will go undone as he leaves (or actively be undone by his successor). Still, 330 more people and their families and loved ones have reason to celebrate today.