WASHINGTON, DC, USA – President Barack Obama on Wednesday, March 30, commuted the sentences of 61 individuals charged mostly with cocaine-related offenses, as he again pressed the case for drug sentencing reforms.
The White House announced that Obama had commuted sentences that ranged from life imprisonment to lesser jail terms for possession and conspiracy to distribute drugs like crack or cocaine.
In December, Obama commuted similar sentences of 95 Americans, foreshadowing a 2016 push to fix the criminal justice system.
Obama has now commuted the sentences of 248 individuals, some of whom he is scheduled to meet later in the day.
Obama wants to reform a range of laws that cause the United States to have among the world's highest incarceration rates and that put a disproportionate number of black and Hispanic Americans behind bars.
Laws that punish crack possession much more severely than possession of cocaine, are an often cited example of rules that result in racial bias in jails.
Reforming the judicial system is one of the rare issues on which a sufficient number Republicans and Democrats in Congress appear to agree, raising the prospect of congressional action even in an election year. – Rappler.com