(Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama commuted the
sentences of 22 drug offenders serving time in federal prison,
accelerating the administration’s efforts to reduce penalties
for many of those convicted of such crimes.

Obama’s decision, announced on Tuesday, more than doubles
the number of commutations he has issued, and is the latest sign
that the White House is taking aim at a drug war the president
has characterized as counterproductive.

Many of those freed by the commutations, including eight
inmates who received life sentences, would have already served
their time under today’s drug laws and sentencing policies,
according to White House counsel Neil Eggleston.

The treatment of non-violent drug crimes in the U.S. is
“problematic” and is “breaking the bank” because of high
incarceration costs, Obama said last week. He also said felony
sentences were keeping offenders from finding jobs and
participating in the recovery.

“We’re all responsible for at least finding a solution to
this,” Obama said in an interview with David Simon, the creator
of the television series “The Wire,” that was taped for a
summit on criminal justice reform.

The movement to change the nation’s policy on dealing with
drug offenders has drawn rare bipartisan support, with Democrats
and Republicans working together on proposals to overhaul
sentencing.

Revamping Sentencing

Eggleston, in a blog post on the White House website, said
that the administration would continue work on revamping drug
sentencing and that the president would continue using his
clemency authority “in certain instances where justice,
fairness, and proportionality demand it, and to give eligible
and worthy individuals who have paid their debt to society a
chance to contribute in meaningful ways.”

Last year, Attorney General Eric Holder announced new rules
to ensure that low-level, nonviolent drug offenders would no
longer be charged with federal crimes that impose strict
mandatory minimum sentences. In 2010, Obama signed legislation
that reduced the disparity in sentences between powder cocaine
and crack cocaine.

Holder has also asked the U.S. Sentencing Commission to
allow imprisoned drug offenders to apply for reduced sentences,
and began a program to expedite thousands of clemency requests
from current inmates. That effort has placed a specific emphasis
on aiding nonviolent drug offenders who have served more than a
decade in jail with good conduct and who would be eligible for
shorter sentences today.

Obama Letter

While Holder and Obama repeatedly have said they want to
address issues with the criminal justice system, before Tuesday
Obama had only commuted the sentences of 21 people and pardoned
64 individuals.

In a letter sent to those receiving the commutations, Obama
wrote that he believed in their abilities “to prove the
doubters wrong.”

“Remember that you have the capacity to make good
choices,” Obama wrote. “By doing so, you will affect not only
your own life, but those close to you. You will also influence,
through your example, the possibility that others in your
circumstances get their own second chance in the future.”

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, a potential contender for
the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, reintroduced
legislation last month that would give federal judges more
discretion in the way they hand down sentences. His co-sponsor
on that bill was Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont.

“These sentences disproportionately affect minorities and
low-income communities, while doing little to keep us safe,”
Paul said in a statement at the time.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Justin Sink in Washington at
jsink1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Joe Sobczyk at
jsobczyk@bloomberg.net
Justin Blum