When President Barack Obama commuted the sentences last week of 214 nonviolent drug offenders, he changed the lives of many inmates who may never have expected to leave prison. The action also had a ...

Some 4,000 lawyers and 70 big firms helped in this effort to commute the sentences of low-level drug offenders who've served significant prison time. But relatively few inmates have been released.

In April of this year, the Obama administration announced it would “reformulate” clemency guidelines for federal prison offenders. As the Washington Post described it, “Justice Department Prepares for ...