President Biden on Thursday announced he is commuting the prison sentences for nearly 1,500 people and pardoning 39 others in what the White House said was the largest act of clemency in a single day in modern presidential history.
The 1,500 people had been serving long prison sentences that would have been shorter under today's laws and practices. They had been on home confinement since the COVID pandemic.
The pardons went to people who had been convicted of nonviolent crimes, including drug offenses, who the White House said had "turned their lives around."
The Pope, democratic lawmakers, and advocates are lobbying Biden to commute the sentences of the 40 people on federal death row and use his clemency power to begin to address sentencing disparities and mass incarceration.
Even before Thursday's announcement, Biden had issued more commutations than any other recent president by this point in their first term, the White House said.