“One recent afternoon, President Obama sat down for lunch with seven former prisoners at the Washington restaurant and bookstore Busboys and Poets. He had just commuted the sentences of 61 inmates and was listening to the stories of other ex-offenders who had been granted clemency.
“Obama was clearly moved by what he heard.
“’It does not make sense for a nonviolent drug offender to be getting 20 years, 30 years, in some cases life, in prison,’” Obama said at the lunch. “’That’s not serving anybody.’”