Ask Obama to Send Non-Violent Offenders Home for the Holidays
President Obama has granted more commutations than the previous 11 presidents combined) and as of Thanksgiving, he's granted clemency to more than 1000 non-violent drug offenders. He has 12,000 clemency applications to review in his 43 days left in office. He has the option to do this one at a time, or through a blanket commutation of inmates still serving time under an old, defunct law). Let's tell him to send non-violent offenders home for the holidays.
What you can do1. CONTACT PRESIDENT OBAMA by email, phone (202-456-1111) or mail (President Barack Obama, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500) using the script below.
2. SIGN this petition from the ACLU
3. The United States is the world’s leader in incarceration. SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONS fighting for criminal justice reform, like The Sentencing Projectand The Marshall Project
USE THIS SCRIPT (make it your own & be polite!)
"Thank you for making a historic effort to grant freedom to those serving sentences for non-violent drug crimes. Please sort through the remaining 12,000 clemency applications before December 30th to send non-violent drug offenders home for the holidays."
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT
While much of the country is celebrating the legalization of marijuana, it's worth remembering how many people wake up every morning in prison where they are serving often lengthy sentences for non-violent drug possession. Nearly half of all incarcerated Americans are in prison for drug offenses and 93% of those inmates are in for non-violent crimes. Keeping these people in prison does great damage to their lives and is a heavy economic and spiritual burden for our country to bear. Thank you for taking these steps.