This morning President Joe Biden announced that he is commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 people serving longer prison terms for convictions related to crack cocaine. In doing so, Biden made history and set the record for the most total individual commutations by a president in history at over 4,000. “Today’s clemency action provides relief for individuals who received lengthy sentences based on discredited distinctions between crack and powder cocaine, as well as outdated sentencing enhancements for drug crimes,” Biden said in a statement issued by the White House on Friday. This distinction was set by a 1986 law drafted by then-Sen.