Obama commutes sentences of 214 drug offenders

Obama commutes the sentences of 214 drug offenders, the single biggest act of presidential clemency in over a century.

The White House says the prisoners include 67 people who had been serving life sentences. Most were guilty of non-violent crimes, many involving possession or distribution of crack cocaine.

The actions “represent the most grants in a single day since at least 1900,” says Neil Eggleston, the White House counsel to the president. He says that those receiving a commutation had been “incarcerated under outdated and unduly harsh sentencing laws,” CBS reports.

The move is part of Obama’s effort to push ahead with criminal justice reform. The United States currently has among the world’s highest incarceration rates and puts a disproportionate number of black and Hispanic Americans behind bars.

Obama has now made 562 commutations, “more commutations than the previous nine presidents combined,” Eggleston says.

— AP