President Biden announced Friday that he is commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 inmates convicted of nonviolent drug offenses, the latest in a series of pardons he’s issued before departing the White House.
Mr. Biden has issued more pardons and commutations than any other U.S. president, though he waited until the end of his administration to grant most of them. It is unclear how many of the 2,500 inmates will be released from prison following his clemency action.
The commutations are for offenders who received harsher sentences for drug crimes than they would have under current sentencing guidelines, the White House said. Those disparities disproportionately affected Black Americans and fueled mass incarceration, according to criminal justice studies.
“It is time that we equalize these sentencing disparities,” Mr. Biden said in a statement. “This action is an important step toward righting historic wrongs, correcting sentencing disparities and providing deserving individuals the opportunity to return to their families and communities after spending far too much time behind bars.”
According to the White House, the latest round of commutations will release individuals who received lengthy sentences based on now-discredited distinctions between crack and powder cocaine or outdated sentencing enhancements for drug crimes.
Mr. Biden had embraced those tougher sentences as a U.S. senator, codifying them through his 1994 crime bill. He has since expressed regret for pushing that legislation and pledged during the 2020 campaign to address the long drug sentences that stemmed from it. Most of those harsh sentences have since been reduced through bipartisan legislation in Congress.
The latest clemency action adds to the sweeping use of the power by Mr. Biden as he exits the White House. In recent weeks, he has also commuted the sentences of nearly all prisoners on federal death row and set a single-day record of 1,500 commutations for individuals moved to home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He also granted a sweeping pardon to his son Hunter Biden, which protects the first son from prosecution for any crime he may have committed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The flurry of clemency comes after Mr. Biden had granted far fewer pardons and commutations than his predecessors for the first three years of his administration. But in his final month, Mr. Biden went on a record-setting clemency spree and now has issued more pardons and commutations than any other president. By the end of 2023, he has issued only 138 grants of clemency.
Since December, he has granted more than 4,000 commutations or pardons. President-elect Donald Trump issued 144 pardons and 94 commutations during his first term and President Barack Obama issued 212 pardons and 1,715 commutations over his two terms, according to the Justice Department.
In his final weeks, Mr. Biden faced increased pressure from criminal justice advocates and Democratic backers to use his clemency powers to clear out federal death row and release inmates who are vulnerable or would have received less harsh sentences under modeling guidelines. Those calls grew louder last month, Mr. Biden had pardoned Hunter Biden, after repeatedly insisting he would not.
As of last month, there were roughly 9,400 clemency petitions filed with the Justice Department, according to the department’s website. The agency’s pardon office vets and reviews all applications before making recommendations to the White House on whether or not to take action.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.