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U.S. NEWSWednesday 15 July 2015
Obama calls for shorter sentences for nonviolent convicts
JOSH LEDERMAN In a speech to the an- “In far too many cases, the
Associated Press nual convention of the punishment simply doesn’t
WASHINGTON (AP) — NAACP civil rights group, fit the crime,” Obama told
President Barack Obama Obama also called for a crowd of 3,300 in Phila-
on Thursday laid out an voting rights to be restored delphia. Low-level drug
expansive vision for fixing to felons who have served dealers, for example, owe
the U.S. criminal justice their sentences, and said a debt to society, but not
system by focusing on employers should stop a life sentence or a 20-
communities, courtrooms the practice of asking job year prison term, he said.
and cellblocks. He an- candidates about their With his speech to the
nounced a federal review past convictions. He said prominent African-Amer-
of the use of solitary con- long mandatory minimum ican advocacy group,
finement and urged Con- sentences now in place Obama sought to put
gress to pass a sentencing should be reduced — or a spotlight on the need
reform bill by year’s end. discarded entirely. for new legislation as he
Frances Brisbane of the Long Island borough of New York
applauds as she listens to President Barack Obama speak at
the NAACP’s 106th national convention at the Philadelphia
Convention Center, on Tuesday, July 14, 2015, in Philadelphia.
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
mounted a weeklong push years in office to reduce
on criminal justice reform. harsh sentences, cut costs
A day earlier, Obama and correct disparities he
commuted the sentences said have disproportion-
of 46 nonviolent drug of- ally burdened minorities.
fenders — the most com- Earlier in his presidency, as
mutations a president has he spent his political capi-
issued on a single day in at tal carefully on major do-
least four decades. mestic priorities, Obama
Upon arriving Tuesday in spoke cautiously and
Philadelphia, Obama met only intermittently about
with a number of former the need for smarter sen-
prisoners to discuss their tencing and other justice
experience re-entering changes.
society, the White House But as of late, public at-
said. And on Thursday, tention has been piqued
Obama planned to put a by a serious of upsetting
personal face on the na- incidents across the coun-
tion’s mushrooming prison try. In places like Baltimore,
population with a visit to El New York and Ferguson,
Reno Federal Correctional Missouri, tensions between
Institution outside of Okla- law enforcement and their
homa City — the first visit communities have spilled
to a federal prison by a sit- out into the open, un-
ting U.S. president. derscoring longstanding
The assertive moves re- concerns among minority
flected a president ea- communities that they’re
ger to wield his executive treated differently in the
power during his waning criminal justice system.q
