3 or 4 Non Violent Drug Offenders Might be Getting out of Prison

WILL DOPE OFFENDERS GET CLEMENCY??

Late last week, the DOJ announced the six criteria for its “Clemency Initiative” by which thousands of drug offenders might be eligible for clemency. The following criteria will be considered when reviewing and expediting clemency applications from federal inmates: [1] they are serving a sentence that would be lower if imposed under today’s standards; [2] they are non-violent, low-level offenders without significant ties to large scale criminal organizations, gangs or cartels; [3] they have served at least 10 years of their prison sentence; [4] they don’t have a significant criminal history; [5] they have demonstrated good conduct in prison; and [6] they have no history of violence prior to or during their current term of imprisonment.

Currently, there are 216,614 total federal prisoners of which 86,215 (43.4% of the prison population) are serving sentences of more than 10 years. Although this announcement gives many hope for clemency, the criteria certainly narrows the class of individuals who will be eligible. Think about it—how many inmates serving over 10 years in prison: (1) were “non-violent, (2) low-level offenders, (3) who lacked a “significant criminal history,” and (4) have “no history of violence prior to or during their current term of imprisonment?”

Let’s hope this criteria, like the Sentencing Guidelines are advisory as opposed to mandatory!

Department of Justice Clemency Initiative