Upon the unveiling of the new guidelines for awarding clemency on Wednesday by the US Justice Department, The Washington Times said that the most obvious candidates who can avail to the amended program would be prison inmates who have clean jail records, do not present signs of threat to public safety, and were handed out sentences under laws that are out of date.
Deputy Attorney General James Cole, who made public six new clemency guidelines, said, "For our criminal justice system to be effective, it needs to not only be fair, but it also must be perceived as being fair. Older, stringent punishments that are out of line with sentences imposed under today's laws erode people's confidence in our criminal justice system. I am confident that this initiative will go far to promote the most fundamental of American ideals - equal justice under law."
The Times said the effort is consistent with the goal of the White House to address the increasing expenses due to the overpopulation in state prisons and the granting of justice to inmates who have been treated on what appeared to be an unfair justice system, especially those who have served longer prison sentences that what a person would receive today if he had committed the same crime.
According to the new guidelines, applicants for clemency should have served a minimum of 10 years in prison, do not have any significant criminal history, has demonstrated good conduct while incarcerated, do not show a history of violence before or during his imprisonment, do not have ties to cartels or gangs and are currently serving outdated prison sentences. When addressing the question on whether inmates who have been imprisoned for crack convictions will be the only ones who would be eligible for clemency under the new initiative, Cole clarified that the guidelines are not limited to just them.
The issue was raised in consideration to the 2010 law President Barack Obama had signed, which is the Fair Sentencing Act. Under this law, the goal of the statute is to reduce racial and sentencing disparities between convictions for crack cocaine and powder cocaine, The Times said.
