President Obama cut short the sentences of 58 prisoners on Thursday, the White House announced. The majority of the offenders had been locked up for non-violent, drug-related offenses, with 18 due to die behind bars. This round of commutations is the latest Obama administration effort to scale back the punishments citizens face for some drug offenses. In a blog post on Medium, Obama wrote that his efforts to do so thus far have centered around commutation grants, in which the president OKs the early release of criminals who admit to wrongdoing but argue they deserve a second chance.