Obama will reportedly free dozens of prisoners with nonviolent drug charges

In the next few weeks, President Barack Obama is expected to free dozens of federal prisoners with nonviolent drug charges, aides told The New York Times. Many politicians on both sides of the aisle have criticized tough sentences for minor criminals, which disproportionately affect young Latino and black men.

"It's a time when conservatives and liberals and libertarians and lots of different people on the political spectrum" have "come together in order to focus attention on excessive sentences, the costs and the like, and the need to correct some of those excesses," White House counsel Neil Eggleston, who recommends clemency petitions to Obama, told the Times. "So I think the president sees the commutations as a piece of that entire process."

More than 30,000 prisoners have applied for clemency. Since December, Obama has freed 30 drug offenders. Officials estimate he may free more than 40 in the next batch of commutations.

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