Congressional lawmakers are pushing President Joe Biden to grant clemency to nearly 20,000 people in the federal prison system\u2014including those with drug convictions.<\/p>\n
The Biden administration is already asking a fraction of people<\/a> with drug convictions who were placed on home confinement amid the coronavirus pandemic to apply for the relief. But nearly 30 members of Congress signed a letter to the president on Friday urging him to take additional steps for a broader pool of people.<\/p>\n \u201cAs our country continues to work to address racial and systemic injustices in our prison system, we must make a reality of our nation\u2019s founding principles of liberty and justice for all,\u201d they wrote. \u201cThis moment in history can be a defining one for criminal-legal reform, and following actions by Congress last year, granting clemency for thousands of people will move us closer to our ideals of liberty and justice.\u201d<\/p>\n The lawmakers are imploring Biden to commute the sentences of more than 4,000 people who were put on home confinement as part of the CARES Act. Additionally, they\u2019re advocating for the processing of 15,000 other clemency applications that have been submitted.<\/p>\n This also comes days after a group of more than 150 celebrities, athletes, politicians, law enforcement professionals and academics signed a letter that was delivered to Biden<\/a>, asking him to issue a \u201cfull, complete and unconditional pardon\u201d to all people with non-violent federal marijuana convictions.<\/p>\n The new letter from the lawmakers\u2014which was led by Reps. Cori Bush (D-MO), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and David Trone (D-MD)\u2014states that \u201cwe implore your administration to extend compassion to each person currently on home confinement under the CARES Act and to refrain from placing arbitrary categorical restrictions on who deserves to remain home.\u201d<\/p>\n These men and women have been serving their time at home, contributing to society and in many cases working and caring for family members. pic.twitter.com\/wIQ4I8y1gb<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (@RepBonnie) September 17, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n It goes on to encourage the establishment of an independent advisory board \u201cto streamline and modernize the decades-old clemency process, and provide expeditious review of the thousands of cases awaiting answers to their clemency petitions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis advisory board must address the racially disproportionate impacts of our criminal-legal system,\u201d the lawmakers wrote. \u201cThere is no reason to wait.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBy granting commutation to the 4,000 on home confinement and committing to restructuring the clemency process at-large, your administration has an opportunity to fulfill a campaign promise to reduce our nation\u2019s prison and jail population and improve the lives of the people and communities across the country who have been most harmed by a punitive and racially biased criminal-legal system,\u201d the letter says.<\/p>\n The letter doesn\u2019t specifically talk about relief for people with federal drug convictions\u2014despite the fact that Bush and Watson Coleman introduced a historic bill to federally decriminalize all drugs earlier this year<\/a>\u2014but it does cite the case of Gwen Levi, a grandmother who was placed on home confinement under the CARES Act after serving 16 years in prison over a drug conviction.<\/p>\n \u201cClemency is a constitutional imperative,\u201d the letter, which was first reported<\/a> by The Hill, says. \u201cGranting commutations to those on home confinement and restructuring the clemency process demonstrates genuine compassion, while ensuring that our country continues to mitigate the risks of COVID-19, particularly in the populations that are most vulnerable to its spread.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs Members of Congress who care deeply about ending systemic and racial injustice in our criminal legal system, and who are willing to do everything possible to ensure every community is safe from the deadly consequences of this pandemic, we stand ready to work with you,\u201d it concludes.<\/p>\n Other notable signatories include Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Karen Bass (D-CA), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA).<\/p>\n A coalition of advocates and\u00a0lawmakers sent letters<\/a>\u00a0with a\u00a0marijuana-specific clemency request to Biden<\/a>\u00a0early in his presidency in February.<\/p>\n White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said during a press briefing last month that Biden is \u201cexploring\u00a0multiple avenues to provide relief to certain nonviolent drug offenders<\/a>, including through the use of his clemency power.\u201d<\/p>\n The administration is \u201cworking hard every day to reform our justice system in order to strengthen families, boost our economy, give people a chance at a better future,\u201d she said. \u201cAs part of this, the president is deeply committed to reducing incarceration, helping people successfully reenter society. And he has said too many people are incarcerated\u2014too many are black and brown.\u201d<\/p>\n Psaki added at the time that there was nothing actionable to preview at that point, but said the president is \u201clooking at a range of avenues\u201d for relief. The fact that, as a senator, Biden played a key role in enacting punitive drug laws that contributed to the mass incarceration he\u2019s now considering steps to resolve did not come up during the exchange.<\/p>\n Biden has faced criticism from drug policy reform advocates who\u2019ve grown frustrated that he\u2019s yet to make good on campaign promises such as decriminalizing marijuana. While his opposition to adult-use legalization remains a challenge on its own, they feel he should at least take steps to enact modest reform.<\/p>\n The president also campaigned on expunging prior cannabis records and respecting the rights of states to set their own laws.<\/p>\n Since taking office, however, his administration has not made progress on any of those pledges and has instead\u00a0fired its own White House staffers over marijuana<\/a>\u00a0and sought to extend a budget provision that has\u00a0blocked Washington, D.C. from legalizing cannabis sales<\/a>.<\/p>\n In April, Psaki was pressed on Biden\u2019s clemency promise for people with federal marijuana and said that process\u00a0will start with modestly rescheduling cannabis<\/a>\u2014a proposal that advocates say wouldn\u2019t actually accomplish what she\u2019s suggesting.<\/p>\n Moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule II under the Controlled Substances Act, as Biden proposed on the campaign trail, wouldn\u2019t facilitate mass clemency given that being convicted for crimes related to drugs in that slightly lower category\u2014which currently includes cocaine\u2014also carries significant penalties.<\/p>\n Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said during a recent interview that Biden\u00a0could and should use executive authority<\/a>\u00a0to end federal marijuana prohibition on his own\u2014but the two of them have \u201cdifferences\u201d when it comes to drug policy. There are, however, legal questions about whether a president could actually legalize cannabis unilaterally given existing statutes.<\/p>\n Read the new letter to Biden on clemency below:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Click to access clemency-letter-to-biden.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n Pennsylvania Senators Will Consider DUI Protections For Medical Marijuana Patients At Hearing<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Flickr\/Marc Nozell<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Biden Should Grant Clemency To Thousands, Including People With Drug Convictions, Congressional Lawmakers Say<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Congressional lawmakers are pushing President Joe Biden to grant clemency to nearly 20,000 people in the federal prison system\u2014including those with drug convictions. The Biden administration is already asking a fraction of people with drug convictions who were placed on home confinement amid the coronavirus pandemic to apply for theContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50028"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50028"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50029,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50028\/revisions\/50029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Biden Should Grant Clemency To Thousands, Including People With Drug Convictions, Congressional Lawmakers Say<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"