United States President Barrack Obama is set to free dozens of detainees from federal prisons who have been convicted of drug charges but with no violent offenses.

The New York Times reported that Obama will use his presidential powers to shortened the prison sentence of prisoners who have been convicted of minor charges. Presidents in the past have granted clemency to prisoners, but the 44^th U.S. president will grant clemency to more prisoners that any of his predecessors in almost 50 years.

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Many members in both the President's democrat party and the Republican opposition share the view that a substantial number of people convicted of minor offenses have been given long sentences that are not in proportion to their crimes, according to the Boston Globe.

Both political parties in Congress are working on law that will revise the punishment or prison sentence of non-violent drug offenders.

Most of those who will benefit from the Obama's clemency are members of the minority including Hispanics and African-Americans.

The number of pardoned prisoners this year may reach more than 80 people. But it has been reported that tens of thousands federal detainees have applied for the presidential clemency. The application process is a complicated and long one. Only a handful of those applications will be reviewed on time and a much smaller number will probably be approved.

USA Today reported that many have criticized the slow process of reviewing and granting clemency to prisoners who deserve it.

In order to speed up the process, a large pool of lawyers formed the Clemency Project 2014 to help in the review of the clemency applications. So far, the Project has reviewed and found out that around 13,000 cases were not eligible for pardon. They were only able to recommend 50 inmates for clemency and commutation to the Department of Justice. Project head Cynthia Roseberry said that after setting up the review process, she is confident they can now do the work faster. Some of the cases under review reportedly requires documents that are more than ten years old.

The United States Constitution authorizes the President commute sentences or grant clemency to prisoners who have been convicted of federal offenses.

TagsPresident Barrack Obama, presidential clemency, presidential pardon, clemency project 2104