Donald Trump has commuted the life sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, who came to his attention through Kim Kardashian, who learned of Johnson on Twitter.

As Kevin Drum writes at Mother Jones, while Johnson should have her sentence commuted, Trump is not due any praise for this.

Just in case anyone is tempted to praise Trump for this, please don’t. Sure, Johnson deserved to have her sentence commuted in some way, and I’m happy for her personally. But Trump has turned the pardon power into a cynical PR tool and this is just more of the same. The pardon power isn’t meant to be a lottery played out at the whim of a man-child in the White House who’s discovered a shiny new toy.

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Update: He'll live in Las Vegas for the "forseeable future," says the Nevada Dept. of Corrections.

O.J. Simpson has been released from prison on parole. He served 9 years before being granted parole. He received no special treatment while in prison or while being considered for parole. My view: Let him be. He's done his time for the robbery and related crimes for which he was convicted and sentenced. He's earned his freedom.

It's not clear where he will be living. It seems like it will be California or Florida, but for now he's in Nevada.

Tom Scotto, a close Simpson friend who lives in Naples, Florida, said by text message he was with Simpson following his release. Scotto did not respond to questions about where they were going or whether Simpson’s sister, Shirley Baker of Sacramento, California, or his daughter, Arnelle Simpson of Fresno, California, were with him.

Here are his parole conditions.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, a Trump devotee who has been tweeting about her recent visits to the Oval Office doesn't want him in Florida. What grounds are there to refuse Nevada's request for the transfer? None, as far as I can tell. [More...]

This is the most horrible story I've read this year, although it's only February. It's inconceivable that such disgusting prison conditions could exist anywhere in the world.

Relatives wailed in grief or stared stoically as flowers were placed on 20 caskets at a mass funeral Tuesday for the latest group of inmates who died miserably in Haiti's largest prison, most without ever having been convicted of any crime.

The BBC has photos of the disgusting squalid cells. [More...]

Thank you President Obama. Another 72 inmates received commutations of their sentences today, bringing his 8 day total to 172 and !

President Obama on Friday commuted the sentences of 72 inmates, the latest sign he is accelerating his clemency push during his final months in office.

It was the second time in the past eight days the White House announced that a large group of people, most convicted of nonviolent drug offenses, would be released from federal prison. The two batches totaled 170 inmates.

In total, 944 people have had their sentences cut short by Obama — more than the last 11 presidents combined — with 760 receiving commutations this year alone.

Please keep them coming!

President Obama today commuted the sentences of 102 inmates, bringing the number of commutations this year to 590 and 774 in total during his presidency. Here are their names and a brief description of their original sentences.

President Obama granted clemency to 102 inmates on Thursday, as he continues to release federal inmates serving long prison terms for nonviolent drug offenses. Obama has now commuted the sentences of 774 federal inmates, more than the previous 11 presidents combined.

With 590 commutations this year, the president has commuted more individuals’ sentences in one year than in any single year in U.S. history, White House officials said.

Obama's approval ratings are at the highest level of his second term. [More...]

President Obama today commuted 214 more federal sentences, bringing his total to 564, more than the previous 9 presidents combined.

67 of today's commutations went to those serving life sentences with no chance of release. To date, he has commuted 197 life sentences. (Some were commuted to 30 years, not time served.)

President Obama commuted 58 sentences today. 57 of the 58 inmates are drug offenders.

His statement is here. He called for Congress to reform unjust mandatory minimum sentences.

While I will continue to review clemency applications, only Congress can bring about the lasting changes we need to federal sentencing. That is why I am encouraged by the bipartisan efforts in Congress to reform federal sentencing laws, particularly on overly harsh mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. Because it just doesn’t make sense to require a nonviolent drug offender to serve 20 years, or in some cases, life, in prison. An excessive punishment like that doesn’t fit the crime. It’s not serving taxpayers, and it’s not making us safer.

This brings Obama's total number of commutations, to 306, which he says is more commutations than the last six presidents combined.

The Department of Justice has issued a directive to states telling them to make it easier for those leaving prison to get ID cards. It's part of a broader new initiative to make it easier for felons leaving prison to re-enter society. The initiative is called Roadmap to Re-entry.

The AP reports: [More...]

Is the 20th time the charm for former Charles Manson follower Leslie van Houten, imprisoned since 1969 for the La Bianca murders? The parole board in California today agreed to recommend she be granted parole. Although she has been a minor inmate, her prior 19 requests were denied. The final decision will be up to Gov. Jerry Brown.

I've supported her parole here on TalkLeft since 2002. [More..]

Here is President Obama's op-ed in today's Washington Post explaining why he has ordered the end of solitary confinement for juveniles in federal prisons.

Here is the Justice Department report on the effects of solitary confinement -- Obama says he adopted its recommendations. The report has 50 guiding principles. Obama writes:

The Justice Department has completed its review, and I am adopting its recommendations to reform the federal prison system. These include banning solitary confinement for juveniles and as a response to low-level infractions, expanding treatment for the mentally ill and increasing the amount of time inmates in solitary can spend outside of their cells. These steps will affect some 10,000 federal prisoners held in solitary confinement — and hopefully serve as a model for state and local corrections systems. And I will direct all relevant federal agencies to review these principles and report back to me with a plan to address their use of solitary confinement.

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Real Housewives Star Teresea Giudice, has served a year for tax fraud, and left Danbury yesterday and went home. (I guess she was able to bypass the Halfway House.)

Gov. Jerry Brown gave Robert Downey Jr. a Xmas Eve gift of a pardon.

Here's the DOJ announcement about Obama's most recent sentence commutations with names and case details.

Here is Obama's statistical record on pardons and commutations, from the Office of the Pardon Attorney, updated through Dec. 4, 2015.

Here is the list of all pardons granted by Obama from 2009 through 2015.

Here is the list of all commutations granted by Obama from 2009 to 2015.

How has he compared to GW Bush? The Bush list of pardons is here, and list of commutations here.

Pope Francis has concluded his visit to the U.S. It was a big success. Today, among other stops, he visited a jail in Philadelphia and met with inmates.

Pope Francis also rebuked society for not doing enough to rehabilitate prisoners. “It is painful when we see prison systems which are not concerned to care for wounds, to soothe pain, to offer new possibilities,” the pope said, speaking in Spanish through an interpreter. “It is painful when we see people who think that only others need to be cleansed, purified, and do not recognize that their weariness, pain and wounds are also the weariness, pain and wounds of society.”

...Visiting the imprisoned is a traditional good work in the Catholic Church, one of the seven corporal works of mercy.

President Obama has issued 46 grants of clemency to drug offenders.

“These men and women were not hardened criminals. But the overwhelming majority had to be sentenced to at least 20 years,” he said, noting that in his letters to them he made sure they needed to make different choices now that they were free.”But I believe that at its heart, America’s a nation of second chances. And I believe these folks deserve their second chance.”

This isn't even on my front page of Google News, I had to search for it. Google needs a new algorythm or whatever they use to decide what's important enough for the front page and top stories.

Legendary cocaine trafficker George Jung (played by Johnny Depp in the movie "Blow") has been released from prison to a halfway house after serving almost 20 years behind bars.

Jung says on his website:

Jung was a part of the Medellin Cartel which was responsible for up to 85 percent of the cocaine smuggled into the United States. He specialized in the smuggling of cocaine from Colombia on a large scale.

Jung was first sent to the federal prison in Danbury on a marijuana case. While there, he made friends with Carlos Lehder, who along with Pablo Escobar, the Ochoa brothers and Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha (alias El Mexicano) headed up the Medellin cartel. In the movie, Jung says:

Danbury wasn't a prison, it was a crime school. I went in with a Bachelor of marijuana, came out with a Doctorate of cocaine.