Biden Announces Largest Single-Day Act of Clemency in Modern History

President Biden will commute the sentences of around 1,500 people, in the largest single-day act of clemency for any president in modern U.S. history.

The commutations, announced in a statement Thursday, are for people who were released from prison and placed in home confinement during the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition to the commutations, Biden is also pardoning 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes.

Prisons became fertile breeding grounds for infection during the pandemic and some inmates were released in efforts to stop the virus from spreading. The commutations are for those people who were released and are deemed to have successfully reintegrated into their communities.