President Barack Obama issued a record-breaking amount of commutations by reducing the sentence of 214 federal inmates. The Wednesday's commutation is the largest single-day grant in the nation's history. He has commuted the sentences of more men and women than the past 9 presidents.
With total of 562 commutations during his presidency, Obama has now used his constitutional clemency power to shorten the sentence of more federal inmates that any president since Calvin Coolidge.
The early released of 214 prisoners, mostly low-level drug offenders, is part of Obama's effort to correct what he views as unreasonably long mandatory minimum sentence.
The president's clemency power usually takes one of two forms: Pardons, which give offenders legal forgiveness for their crimes, and commutations, which shorten prison sentence but often leave other conditions intact.
Many among those granted commutations will remain under court supervision even after release. Thirty-five recipients won't be released for another two years.
However, advocates for more aggressive presidential clemency still believes that the pace is not enough to fulfill the promise of Obama's 2014 clemency initiative.
Critics also say that the commutations have come at the expense of traditional pardons, which are more useful for former offenders looking for jobs or seeking to restore their voting or gun rights.
Earlier this year, former Pardon Attorney Deborah Leff resigned because she said the administration wasn't devoting enough resources to the issue, and because her recommendations were often overruled.
Source: USA Today
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