Obama Doubles Clemency Numbers, Freeing 95 Federal Prisoners Early

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama doubled his clemency numbers on Friday, shortening the jail time for dozens of federal prisoners who were given lengthy sentences on drug charges.
Obama granted clemency to 95 people -- more than the 89 he granted clemency to previously in the entire stretch of his presidency. At least 40 of the individuals had been sentenced to spend the rest of their lives behind bars. Instead, the federal prisoners are set to be released in April and December of 2016. His current total is 184.
The president granted clemency to eight drug offenders around this time last December. In July, Obama reduced the sentences of 46 inmates who would have received shorter prison terms had they been convicted today. That brought his total to 89 commutations. As of Friday morning, Obama had denied a total of 7,378 clemency petitions and closed another 2,604 without action out of the 18,698 clemency petitions he has received over the course of his presidency.
In an interview with The Huffington Post in March, Obama said that he planned to grant clemency "more aggressively" after his administration faced criticism for the way it had handled clemency cases. In an October interview with The Marshall Project, he acknowledged a need to "speed up the process" as his presidency winds down.