David Jackson

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — President Obama commuted the sentences of 61 prisoners on Wednesday, part of an effort to more aggressively use the commutation power and call for changes to sentencing laws, particularly with respect to low-level drug offenses.

Most of the recipients "are low-level drug offenders whose sentences would have been shorter if they were convicted under today’s laws," Obama said in a Facebook posting.

During a lunch meeting with formerly imprisoned individuals who have been recipients of commutations, Obama said new sentencing laws are a top priority and noted that the idea has support from Republicans like House Speaker Paul Ryan.

The president described pardons and commutations as ways "to show people what a second chance can look like."

In a blog post, White House Counsel Neil Eggleston said the 61 individuals listed Wednesday were in prison under "outdated and unduly harsh sentencing laws," and "more than one-third of them were serving life sentences." During his presidency, Obama has commuted the sentences of 248 individuals, "more than the previous six Presidents combined," Eggleston said. "And, in total, he has commuted 92 life sentences."

In calling for reform of "overly punitive sentencing policies," Eggleston wrote: "Despite the progress we have made, it is important to remember that clemency is nearly always a tool of last resort that can help specific individuals, but does nothing to make our criminal justice system on the whole more fair and just."

He added: "So while we continue to work to resolve as many clemency applications as possible — and make no mistake, we are working hard at this — only broader criminal justice reform can truly bring justice to the many thousands of people behind bars serving unduly harsh and outdated sentences."

Eggleston's comments reflect the difficulties in revamping the pardon process, which former Pardon Attorney Deborah Leff, noted in the letter she wrote when she resigned after less than two years on the job.

In her resignation letter, obtained by USA TODAY, Leff said the Obama administration instructed Justice Department attorneys to neglect applications for presidential pardons in order to give priority to the Justice Department's initiative to release low-level offenders from prison.

Leff wrote that the administration's focus on the clemency initiative at the expense of traditional pardons and commutations "means that the requests of thousands of petitioners seeking justice will lie unheard."

Former administration pardon attorney suggests broken system in resignation letter

In a letter to Wednesday's recipients, Obama said the power to grant pardons and commutations "embodies the basic belief in our democracy that people deserve a second chance after having made a mistake in their lives that led to a conviction under our laws.”

The number of clemency cases has expanded since the administration announced a new initiative in 2014. As of earlier this week, there were 10,073 clemency cases pending, three times as many as in 2013. And that doesn't count thousands more cases seeking free legal help through the Clemency Project, an outside consortium set up to assist with the initiative.

In her letter, Leff said she fully supports the administration's "groundbreaking and much-needed launch" of the clemency project.

"But given that the department has not fulfilled its commitment to provide the resources necessary for my office to make timely and thoughtful recommendations on clemency to the president, given your statement that the needed staff will not be forthcoming, and given that I have been instructed to set aside thousands of petitions for pardon and traditional commutation, I cannot fulfill my responsibilities as pardon attorney," she added.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Leff's concerns "were not inconsistent with concerns that we’ve had. The first is, we would like to see that unit of the Department of Justice be given more resources to do their work. And in the President’s latest budget proposal, there’s a significant increase proposed for the budget of that office."

In his blog post, Eggleston said the White House will host a briefing Thursday on "Life After Clemency," in which "advocates, academics, and Administration officials to discuss and share ideas on the President’s clemency initiative and ways to improve paths to reentry." Recipients of commutations will discuss their own experiences during the briefing, he said.

Citing Republican support for sentencing reform, Eggleston said that "Americans across the board acknowledge that the criminal justice system is broken and needs to change."