After a final clemency push during his last week in office, President Obama has now commuted 1,715 sentences — more than any other president. During Obama’s eight years, he granted more commutations than the past 13 presidents did in 78 years combined.
Obama stepped up efforts to use his clemency power over his final years in office, focusing his efforts primarily on reversing decades of drug-war punishments. Based on Bloomberg analysis of Justice Department data, more than 98 percent of those whose sentences he commuted were convicted of drug charges, and over 500 were facing life in prison.
These commutations of drug-related charges are consistent with broader efforts by the Obama administration to reduce the length of such sentences. The administration began a program in 2014 to identify prisoners jailed for nonviolent offenses who had served at least a decade in prison and would receive lower sentences if convicted today. A year later, the Justice Department announced new rules to ensure that low-level, nonviolent drug offenders would no longer be charged with federal crimes that impose strict mandatory minimum sentences.
Some Republican lawmakers have objected to the commutations, arguing that the efforts freed individuals with ties to organized crime or who possessed firearms during the commission of drug crimes. But the White House has noted that those who receive commutations are prohibited from purchasing or possessing firearms.
Other critics have argued the president hasn’t done enough to support clemency efforts. Obama has granted 212 pardons, fewer than all modern presidents except George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush. Prisoner advocates say that by providing commutations — rather than full pardons — people who are freed can still be subject to court supervision, may not see voting or other rights restored and still possess criminal records, complicating job searches.
The former pardon attorney for the Justice Department, Deborah Leff, resigned one year ago after complaining that her department was not provided enough resources and had been denied access to key officials at the White House.
But in an essay for the Harvard Law Review, Obama recognized a place for individual clemency, writing that while “these actions are no substitute for achieving lasting changes to federal sentencing law through legislation,” the effort was “a way to restore a degree of justice, fairness, and proportionality to the system.”
"This is an effort that has touched me personally, and not just because I could have been caught up in the system myself had I not gotten some breaks as a kid," Obama wrote.