President Barack Obama cut the prison sentences of 46 non-violent offenders on Monday, including 14 who were serving life sentences, saying “their punishments didn’t fit the crime.”
“These men and women were not hardened criminals,” Obama said in a video released by the White House. He said the overwhelming majority of the 46 had been sentenced to at least 20 years.
The move was part of a broader effort by the administration to make the U.S. criminal justice system fairer. Obama has now issued nearly 90 commutations during his presidency, most of them to non-violent offenders sentenced for drug crimes under outdated sentencing guidelines. A commutation leaves the conviction in place, but ends the punishment.
Obama wrote a personal letter to each of the 46 individuals to notify them of their commutation.
In a letter to Jerry Bailey, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison for conspiracy to violate laws against crack-cocaine, Obama praised Bailey for showing the potential to turn his life around.
“Now it is up to you to make the most of this opportunity,” Obama wrote in the letter, which was sent to Bailey’s address at a federal correctional facility in Georgia,. “It will not be easy,” Obama said, “and you will confront many who doubt people with criminal records can change.”
Obama’s lawyer, White House counsel Neil Eggleston, predicted the president would issue even more commutations before leaving office in early 2017. But he also said that Obama’s powers to fix the problem were limited, adding that “clemency alone will not fix decades of overly punitive sentencing policies.”
Obama this week is devoting considerable attention to the criminal justice system. He plans to lay out ideas for how to improve the fairness of the system during a speech to the NAACP in Philadelphia on Tuesday. And on Thursday, he is to become the first sitting president to visit a federal prison when he goes to the El Reno Federal Correctional Institution outside of Oklahoma City. While there, he will meet with law enforcement officials and inmates.
(AP)
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24 Responses
Hey Mr. President, how about doing a commutation for Mr. Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin who’s been sentenced to 27 yrs. in prison & Mr. Jonathan Pollard who’s been in prison for at least 29-30 yrs & hasn’t been able to be released from prison with any attempts he’s made through various channels & his health is deteriorating quite a bit?
But yet this Jew lover ignores all the experts from HIS own party and allows Reb S.M. Rubashkin to rot away in prison for an UNDESERVED sentence.
nothing for sholom rubashkin??? talking about the justice system being unfair. no word from our askonim??
Of course Rubashkin and Pollard are much more dangerous than these drug dealers and can’t be pardoned
You can be sure Pollard and Rubashkin are not among them because, I assume, they are considered “hardened criminals” by Osama.
I wonder why he will be outlining his ideas on how to “improve the fairness of the system” in a speech to the NAACP. Why specifically to the NAACP????? Gets one thinking.
you can moderate it any way you wish. Clearly i was just being sarcastic and trying to make a point
Was our president even handed with regards to race – making the ratio of black to white offenders 50-50?
And Sholom Rubashkin is a hardened criminal?!?!?!?!?!
I guess he’s not muslim or African American
And Pollard…..
“their punishments didn’t fit the crime.”
“been sentenced to at least 20 years”
“most of them to non-violent offenders”
“under outdated sentencing guidelines”
…and Sholom Mordichai ben Rivka fits all of the above categories except the one that’s not printed: his skin color.
Ditto for Yonnason ben Malka!
But oh no, not Rubashkin or Pollard!
Their crimes are way too egregious! Perhaps, just maybe, if they were Moose-Leems…..
How about the hardened criminal Rubashkin. I’m sure his crime was much worse than dealing with drugs. Especially since he employed Mexicans who came to our country looking for work and all he gave them was an honest living. I’m sure that if he would have employed them in the lucrative drug business he would be considered a hero
There seems to be a very distressed,sickly Jew conspicuously missing from the list who’s now in the Butner Federal Correction Complex in North Carolina. Ad masai??
I applaud President Obama for making a solid step in the right direction.
Cannabis should be completely legal including for recreational use. For psychedelic entheogens such as LSD and psylocybin (mushroom or synthesized), the users be knowledgeable about their effects. Even heroin should be handled through social agencies and its users should not be jailed.
what about Jonathan Pollard?
What about Johnathan Pollard?
what color were they..
who cares if they were non-violent criminals if they were sentenced for life there was a good reason they are career criminals thats the reason.
there should be a stipulation that if they commit a crime within 2 years of commutation, then the original sentence is back in effect.
HOW CAN THE JEWISH WORLD SLEEP AT NITE KNOWING
SHOLM MORDECHAI IS STILL BEHIND BARS ?
HOW HOW HOW CAN ONE SLEEP ? LE MANN HASHEM
He had time to write 46 personal letters? He probably had to give up a round of golf for that. I’m impressed.
What about Johnathan Pollard? Did Obama pardon him?
Rubashkin committed federal bank fraud. He didn’t employ illegals. He was never convicted for that so all those who think that he’s being targeted for anti semitism or being white the reality it that bank fraud of that level carries that kind of sentence. Now if his lawyers weren’t so arrogant to think that they can beat the Feds then he would made a plea deal & gotten off easier.
It is so heart-breaking that Rubashkin and Pollard are still in jail. Rubashkin should never have been jailed in the first place. Even if a crime was done, a non-jail sentence would have been sufficient. Pollard’s case is also a big travesty of justice. They both should have been released a long time ago. To say the punishment does not fit the crime is a huge understatement. Any decent person would have pardoned them already.
@ANON21 – The bank never alleged bank fraud and was more than willing to continue working with Rubashkin. There were so many irregularities at the trial with the judge working actively against him, not allowing important evidence in his favor, etc. Then the sentencing itself was outrageous with experienced jurists throughout the country denouncing it.