Soon, White House aides say, President Obama will sign into effect executive orders mitigating the sentences of at least 80 nonviolent drug offenders. Dozens will be freed as a result.
The order comes on the heels of a larger effort to undo the damage of deleteriously rigorous drug laws. The past 30 years have seen a significant crackdown on nonviolent drug offenders, resulting in “excessive mandatory minimum sentences” and the overwhelming incarceration of black men. Two-thirds of inmates imprisoned for drug-related offenses are people of color. When, as a part of this reform, the Justice Department issued a call for clemency applications last year, it received over 30,ooo requests—a reasonable indication that the U.S. has been filling its prisons too indiscriminately.