Obama Releases Thousands of Drug Offenders

In what is the largest single-release of inmates in the history of the Federal prison system, Barack Obama has authorized the early release of 6,000 convicted drug offenders on or shortly after October 30th, in an effort to show his resolve to reform the harsh penalties for drug offenses in this country.

What most don't know about this sleight of hand by President Obama, is that 3,400 of these prisoners had already gotten their tentative release and had already done additional service in a halfway house prior to full release.  Another 1,700 were illegals and will be turned over to Immigration & Customs Enforcement for deportation.  As a result, they probably won't serve any further prison time for the drug offenses they committed here. This leaves only 900 who are truly being released back into the U.S. population without serving time in a halfway house.  Statistically, this means that 49% of those 900 will re-arrested and will back in Federal prison sometime in the future.

But, what the hell.  Making it "look" like the President is really doing something about reform is what it's all about.  Forget the fact that if you make it to a Federal penitentiary for a drug-related crime, it wasn't for being caught with a bag of weed at a traffic stop.  It means that you were engaging in the manufacturing, trafficking, or interstate selling of drugs, and had been arrested by the FBI or DEA or turned over by the state's attorney general for a conviction under Federal law.  That fact has nothing to do with the decriminalization of drug offenses that have clogged up our state prison systems.  But, Obama has no control over the states, so, the only thing he can do is use  his pen to dump a bunch of big-time drug people out of the Federal prison system.

References:

6,000 drug offenders to be released from prison Friday: http://fox5sandiego.com/2015/10/30/6000-drug-offenders-set-to-be-released-from-prison-friday/

US prisoner release: Nearly 6,000 drug inmates to go free: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34679662