The President of the United States, Joe Biden, has signed this Friday the commutation of the sentences handed down to nearly 2,500 people convicted of drug crimes and who, in his opinion, are serving “disproportionately long” sentences compared to what they would receive if they were tried now.
“With this action, I have already issued more pardons and commutations than any other president in the history of the United States,” stressed Biden, who next Monday must leave the White House so that Republican Donald Trump takes over the country’s leadership.
The outgoing president has advocated in a statement to correct “historical errors” and “disparate sentences”, so that these people can have “the opportunity to return to their families and communities after spending too much time behind bars.”
In December, Biden already used these same arguments to justify commuting the sentences of another 1,500 people released from prison during the COVID-19 pandemic and placed under house arrest and pardoning 39 people convicted of non-violent crimes. He already warned that he would use every day of his term to adopt these measures.
