Photo: AP

On Friday, President Obama announced grants of clemency to 42 prisoners serving sentences for non-violent drug offenses. Nearly half of the prisoners whose sentences the President commuted were serving life terms. Most of these prisoners are expected to be released on October 1, while others may have to wait until next June.

President Obama has now commuted the sentences of 348 individuals, more than the previous seven presidents combined (Obama’s presidential predecessor George W. Bush granted clemency in just 11 cases). The President enacted nearly half of these commutations in the last three months—61 commutations were granted at the end of March and another 54 in May.

The White House acknowledged the severe limitations of the presidential pardon in combatting harsh sentencing for non-violent drug offenders, saying, in a press release:

“Despite these important efforts, only legislation can bring about lasting change to the federal system. There remain thousands of men and women in federal prison serving sentences longer than necessary, often due to overly harsh mandatory minimum sentences. That is one reason it is critical that both the House and the Senate continue to cooperate on a bipartisan basis to get a criminal justice reform bill to the President’s desk.”

However, the White House’s own efforts are still a far cry from the 10,000 shorted prison terms for drug offenders Obama promised to deliver in 2014 by using the power of his presidential pardon.

More than 35,000 inmates have applied for clemency in response to the administration’s call for applications in 2014.

The latest Federal Bureau of Prison figures put the number of people currently incarcerated for drug offenses in federal prisons at 85,419. That’s 46. 4 percent of the total federal prison population.

A 2013 Sentencing Project report estimated that more than 10,000 people are serving life sentences for being convicted of a non-violent crime, 2,500 of which were convicted of a nonviolent drug offense.