WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is encouraging nonviolent federal inmates who have behaved in prison, have no significant criminal history and have already served more than 10 years behind bars to apply for clemency, officials announced Wednesday.
The initiative is part of a broader Obama administration effort to trim the nation’s prison population, ease sentencing disparities arising from drug possession crimes and scale back the use of strict punishments for drug offenders without a violent past.
The goal is to create a larger pool of eligible prisoners the Justice Department can recommend to the president to consider for shorter sentences.
Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.