Biden sets record and commutes sentences of 2,500 non-violent drug offenders in final days as president
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Sweeping commutations come after Biden lessened sentences of 1,500 people last month. President Biden will commute the sentences of roughly 2,500 people convicted of non-violent drug offenses, the White House announced on Friday. “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,” Biden said in a statement. “I am proud of my record on clemency and will continue to review additional commutations and pardons.”.
Criminal justice advocates praised the decision. Biden has made large-scale pardons and commutations a major part of his criminal justice legacy. Last month, he also commuted the death sentences of almost everyone on federal death row into life sentences.
More controversially, Biden also pardoned his son Hunter as he was facing sentencing tax and gun charges, despite a previous pledge he wouldn’t do so. The pardons and commutations represent a break from Biden’s past in Congress as an author of multiple influential hard-line law enforcement bills in the 1980s and ‘90s, which experts say played a key role in driving mass incarceration.
