WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Thursday commuted the prison sentences of 58 federal convicts, including 18 who were given life sentences.
The action is part of a broader effort to overhaul the criminal justice system and ease punishments for nonviolent drug offenders.
Most whose sentences were cut short are now due out on September 2, though some will be released over the next two years.
Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates said in a statement that the prisoners have been “granted a second chance to lead productive and law-abiding lives.”
The latest wave — which includes defendants convicted of dealing cocaine, crack and methamphetamine — brings to 306 the total number of inmates whose sentences Obama has commuted, the vast majority for drug crimes. The pace of commutations — along with pardons, which are less common — is expected to increase as the end of Obama’s presidency nears. In March, Obama had announced 61 other commutations, which came just three months after he commuted 95 sentences, and just five months after another round of 46 commutations.
The Justice Department revamped the clemency process two years ago to encourage more applications from nonviolent federal offenders. The administration expanded the criteria for eligible inmates, soliciting petitions from inmates who were convicted of nonviolent crimes, had served at least 10 years of their sentences and had been well behaved behind bars, among other considerations.
