The Justice Department is pushing Clemency

The Justice Department on Thursday asked lawyers around the country to help some drug prisoners prepare petitions for clemency, a dramatic expansion of President Barack Obama's action last month commuting the sentences of eight people he said were serving unduly harsh drug sentences. 

The speech by the second-ranking official at the Justice Department, Deputy Attorney General James Cole, came as the Senate Judiciary Committee voted in favor of substantial changes to drug laws that could reduce the nation's prison population and bring exploding costs under control.

Cole's remarks — in which he urged passage of the drug legislation — were a strong signal that the Obama administration intends to press forward with substantial changes in drug policy — an issue that some Republicans are willing to join in an effort to reduce the massive costs of the nation's prison system. 

In an address to the New York State Bar Association, Cole said there are low-level, nonviolent drug offenders who remain in prison, and who would likely have received a substantially lesser sentence if convicted of the same crimes today.

"This is not fair, and it harms our criminal justice system," Cole said. "To help correct this, we need to identify these individuals and get well-prepared petitions into the Department of Justice." The department is trying to identify prisoners in similar circumstances to the eight granted clemency last year so it can recommend them to Obama for clemency, he said.

Of the eight inmates whose sentences Obama commuted in December, all were sentenced under old federal guidelines that treated convictions for crack cocaine offenses more harshly than those involving the powder form of the drug. 

The federal Bureau of Prisons will begin advising inmates of the opportunity to apply for sentence commutations, Cole said.

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