President Obama has decided to offer clemency to thousands of people who have been imprisoned for nonviolent drug violations.
Anthony Papa, a spokesperson for the Drug Policy Alliance, agrees with this move, in saying, “This would be a positive step toward righting the wrongs of our broken criminal justice system. I hope governors with the same power at the state level follow his lead and reunite more families. With half a million people still behind bars on non-violent drug charges, clearly thousands are deserving of a second chance.”
However, this news doesn’t come across as surprising since the administration has been encouraging defense attorneys to suggest inmates that should be considered for early release.
In fact, Obama had commuted the sentences of nine non-violent offenders in prison and which involved crack cocaine while stating that these violators had been sentenced unfairly.
With the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, penalties for crack cocaine violations have been reduced after a long time. The limit has been raised from five grams to one ounce and this applies to those still serving time in prison.
Yet it goes without saying that Obama has not come under pressure from families and fair-sentencing groups to use his executive powers to grant clemency in particular for non-violent drug related offenses.
Attorney-General Eric Holder has also criticized the nation’s large incarceration numbers with the promise to not only cut mandatory minimums but also soften sentencing guidelines as well.
What makes this the right thing to do is because only half of the 24000 prisoners serving time for this crime are eligible to have their sentences reduced.