Obama shortens sentences for 214 federal prisoners

President Barack Obama has shortened prison sentences for 214 federal prisoners, The Associated Press reports. According to the White House, it’s the “most grants in a single day since at least 1900”.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday commuted the sentences of 214 federal inmates, 67 of them serving life sentences – taking his total commutations granted to 562, 197 of which were life sentences.

According to the list of convicted criminals released by the White House, Obama pardoned 56 prisoners who were in prison for firearm related offenses on top of their drug crimes.

Many of these inmates were originally sentenced under a now-defunct mandatory minimum sentence scheme, which was based on racist and scientifically unsound myths about crack cocaine.

Or how about Ian Kavanaugh Gavin of Eight Mile, Ala., who was serving federal time for using and carrying a firearm in furtherance of his possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute?

Obama’s push to lessen the burden on nonviolent drug offenders reflects his long-stated view that the USA needs to remedy the consequences of decades of onerous sentencing requirements that put tens of thousands behind bars for far too long. He remains committed to continuing to reduce the prison terms for individuals who would already be free under current guidelines. “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”. “This morning, these individuals received a message from the president: Your application for clemency has been granted”. He says those receiving commutations were imprisoned under antiquated, overly harsh sentencing laws.

Because no one needs a life sentence for a nonviolent drug crime. Sixty-seven were serving life sentences. A lot of them were sentenced for minor drug offenses.

Almost 200 of the sentences Obama has commuted during his eight years in office were life sentences.

“Our work is far from finished”, said White House counsel Neil Eggleston in a blog post.