President Obama on Monday granted reduced sentences to 46 non-violent prisoners convicted of drug crimes.
Since becoming president, he has commuted the prison terms of 89 inmates, most of whom were drug offenders victimized by extreme sentencing policies. That is four times the total number of commutations under the previous four presidents, according to Fox News.
The television network noted that reducing sentences for certain criminals is a major component of Obama’s prison reform agenda. Former Deputy Attorney General James Cole spearheaded the administration’s commutation of 43 federal convicts’ prison terms last year.
According to the president, the prisoners involved in Monday’s announcement had sentences that “didn’t fit the crime.” In a video message, he stressed that “these men and women were not hardened criminals.”
Fourteen of the prisoners are serving life terms while nearly all of the others were sentenced to at least 20 years behind bars. Obama reportedly wrote individual letters to the 46 inmates, telling one of them: “Now it is up to you to make the most of this opportunity. It will not be easy, and you will confront many who doubt people with criminal records can change.”
White House counsel Neil Eggleston said the president plans to continue reducing prisoners’ sentences through the end of his term in office.
http://www.newsiosity.com/articles/politics/obama-releases-46-more-drug-offenders-prison
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