ACLU: Hope, At Last, for Some Federal Prisoners

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Hope, At Last, for Some Federal Prisoners

By Jennifer Turner

Here's some truth for you: many federal prisoners would receive substantially shorter sentences for the exact same crime if they were sentenced today under the current law. Many would have already served their time and paid their debt to society. Instead, because of outdated laws that are now recognized as unjust, they remain in prison at a cost of millions of taxpayer dollars each year.

That's why the Department of Justice's announcement today is such a big deal. Deputy Attorney General James Cole this morning announced a new, broader set of criteria that the DOJ and White House will use when considering clemency petitions from federal prisoners.

Under these new criteria, the DOJ and White House are seeking commutation requests from federal prisoners who have served at least 10 years for nonviolent crimes, have no history of violence and no significant ties to gangs or cartels, have demonstrated good conduct in prison, and would have received a shorter sentence if sentenced today...President Obama now has a momentous opportunity to give many Americans who have been unnecessarily locked up for far too long the opportunity to reunite with their families.

Since 1980 our federal prison population has grown by 800 percent, and the federal prison system is now nearly 40 percent over capacity. Over 2,000 federal prisoners are serving life without parole for nonviolent drug crimes, and many more are serving unduly harsh sentences for nonviolent offenses...President Obama has...granted clemency at a lower rate than that of any modern president. This is a historic opportunity for President Obama to start undoing the damage done by federal sentencing laws that have shattered families, wasted millions of dollars, and caused our federal prison population to balloon out of control.

- more -

https://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/hope-last-some-federal-prisoners

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