President Biden has granted clemency to five crack dealers, ordering their early release for dealing the drug in recognition of Second Chance Month.
Yes, this guy...
In honor of the new government crack pipe program, here's Joe & Hunter on crack pic.twitter.com/VWCBw9svai
— obedient worker (@lmazzeiphotos) February 9, 2022
Meanwhile, the Biden administration has made zero progress on a campaign promise to release "everyone" in prison for marijuana offenses, the NY Post reports.
"America is a Nation founded on the promise of second chances. During Second Chance Month, we reaffirm our commitment to rehabilitation and reentry for people returning to their communities post incarceration," whoever writes Biden's statements said on Wednesday.
"We also recommit to building a criminal justice system that lives up to those ideals and ensures that everyone receives equal justice under law. That is why today I am announcing steps I am taking to make this promise a reality."
Biden, who wrote or cosponsored some of the nation’s harshest federal drug laws in the 1980s and ’90s, said that he chose to issue commutations to the five crack offenders because they would have been given more lenient sentences today — continuing a long-running effort dating to the Obama administration to identify and retroactively reduce such sentences.
It’s unclear why Biden chose to free none of the estimated 2,700 federal marijuana-dealing inmates, as he promised to do at a Democratic primary debate in 2019. -NY Post
Biden has defended his broken promise to free all marijuana offenses, citing his 2022 mass pardon for people convicted of simple marijuana possession (none of whom were actually in prison), counts. Cannabis advocates call bullshit, however, saying that they understood "everyone" to mean incarcerated dealers as well.
Biden also pardoned 11 people who have already completed their prison sentences, allowing them to vote and own guns again.
"I am using my clemency power to pardon 11 individuals and commute the sentences of 5 individuals who were convicted of non-violent drug offenses," said Biden's writer. "Many of these individuals received disproportionately longer sentences than they would have under current law, policy, and practice. The pardon recipients have demonstrated their commitment to improving their lives and positively transforming their communities. The commutation recipients have shown that they are deserving of forgiveness and the chance at building a brighter future for themselves beyond prison walls."
