Obama grants clemency, 22 prison inmates to be released

President Obama granted clemency to 22 prisoners with drug-related charges, according to the announcement of the White House on Tuesday. Eight of them were initially sentenced with life imprisonment and expected to die behind bars, if not for the clemency granted.

MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) - The decision was commended by the organization Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), hoping that the president would grant more commutations of sentences towards the end of his term. A recipient is a member of the FAMM organization.

"We are thrilled that President Obama is making good on his promise to use the powers granted him by the Constitution to provide relief for federal prisoners serving excessively long mandatory minimum sentences," said FAMM founder and president Julie Stewart in a statement.

The decision had doubled the clemency granted in his administration in an instant, as he is trying to patch up the government's approach to clemency.

According to an earlier interview report made by the Huffington Post, Obama felt the pool of recipients should not just come from those related in white-collar crimes but should encompass the whole of the inmate population.

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In an official report from the White House, the decision is marks as "upholding the principle of fairness in the US criminal justice system through clemency."

"Had they been sentenced under current laws and policies, many of these individuals would have already served their time and paid their debt to society. Because many were convicted under an outdated sentencing regime, they served years -- in some cases more than a decade -- longer than individuals convicted today of the same crime," wrote the White House counsel Neil Eggleston on the official blog.

The president encourages the recipients to turn their lives around and make the most out of the opportunity to make good choices no matter what.

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