President Obama has taken historic action to address the over sentencing of nonviolent drug offenders through his power of executive clemency. He has granted more commutations than the past 11 presidents combined and was even the first sitting president to ever visit a federal prison. 

To date, he has commuted the sentences of 1,176 men and women who were incarcerated under outdated and unfair sentencing laws. 395 people were serving life and nearly all were nonviolent offenders sentenced for drug crimes. 

However, thousands of people are still waiting for a decision on their clemency application and many others have been denied clemency who we believe are deserving. It is likely that President Obama's progress on this issue will stop under the Trump Administration and those who are deserving of a second chance will needlessly be kept from their families for years and others will die in prison.

That's why we need President Obama to be bold on clemency and grant commutations to thousands more nonviolent drug offenders and revisit those who have been denied. He could also help give all those nonviolent drug offenders serving life sentences an outdate of no more than 20 years. That would give hope to so many people who have already paid for their mistakes. 

Please join us in asking President Obama to continue his hard work on clemency to help ensure that many people deserving of a second chance do not die in prison. 

Amy Povah
CAN-DO Foundation - Justice Through Clemency