President Joe Biden extended clemency to an unprecedented number of people Thursday, granting pardons to 39 people convicted of nonviolent crimes and commuting the sentences of another 1,499. This sweeping action marked the largest single-day clemency act in modern American history.
The people granted clemency were largely those placed under house arrest during the COVID-19 pandemic when prisons across the country relocated thousands of people to home confinement, seeking to curb the spread of the respiratory virus in overcrowded correctional facilities.
An analysis of data collected by USA TODAY from the Bureau of Prisons showed the demographic split behind the numbers. Among the 1,499 whose sentences were commuted, 1,217 were identified as male and 282 as female.
About 61% of those were white, 37% Black, 1.8% Asian and 0.5% American Indian. Overall, 57% of people in prisons are white, 39% Black, 1.5% Asian and 2.9% American Indian. The data did not differentiate between Hispanic and non-Hispanic people.
The ages of those granted clemency ranged from 25 to 89, with a median age of 51. Many were nearing the end of their sentences; half had a year or less remaining before their projected release.
Geographically, Residential Reentry Management in Dallas, an administrative office that manages federal halfway houses in Arkansas, Oklahoma and northern Texas, accounted for the largest group of people released, followed by those in San Antonio and Atlanta.
According to the Bureau of Prisons database, RRM Dallas has 22 field offices and 14,065 offenders. Of those, 4,873 were in home confinement.
President Biden has promised more sweeping reprieves for nonviolent offenders in the coming weeks.