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Fact check: Obama administration implemented several police and prison reforms

Brinley Hineman, USA TODAY
·7 min read

The claim: The Obama administration implemented no type of police or prison reforms

A Facebook post shared earlier this month lays out several claims about police and prison reforms during President Barack Obama's eight years in office.

It starts by asking: "Who's old enough to remember when we had: a Black president, a Black AG (2 of them!), a Democrat-controlled House and Senate, a VP who claims he's always worked for the Black community."

And then it claims that despite the situation, "they passed NO prison reform, NO police reform, or any other reforms for that matter!"

The meme was originally shared Sept. 1 by the page Black Knowledge, which has more than 800,000 followers. The page didn't respond to a Facebook message seeking information about the meme.

Let's look back at the Obama administration's policing and prison-related efforts. Obama was in office from 2009-2017.

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Obama and Biden introduced reforms

After the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the choking death of Eric Garner on Staten Island in New York City, both in 2014, Obama established the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing. The task force in 2015 urged that police killings be investigated by independent prosecutors.

The task force also called for ending all racial profiling by law enforcement agencies, more community policing and a better relationship between police officers and neighborhood institutions.

PolitiFact tracked promises Obama made about criminal justice. It found that Obama kept many promises he made during his presidency, including to:

  • Appoint a special adviser to the president on violence against women.

  • Fully fund the Violence Against Women Act.

  • Initiate a grant and training program for law enforcement to deter cyber crime.

  • Restore funding for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne/JAG) program.

Obama granted clemency to more than 1,900 people while in office, commuting the sentences of people imprisoned or pardoning them. Although he only granted 5% of requests, he received more than 36,000 clemency requests.

A Pew Research Center analysis found that Obama granted clemency to more people convicted of federal crimes than any president in 64 years. The analysis also notes the administration asked for requests through its Clemency Initiative, launched in 2014. "In his record use of commutations, Obama reduced sentences for federal inmates who were convicted in all 50 states," Pew states.

More: Fact check: 1994 crime bill did not bring mass incarceration of Black Americans

Obama was also the first president to visit a federal prison, where he met with nonviolent drug offenders.

Christopher Slobogin, director of Vanderbilt Law School's Criminal Justice Program, pointed to consent decrees implemented by the Obama administration as proof of reform. A consent decree is a court-ordered agreement between law enforcement and the Department of Justice to correct systemic misconduct in police departments.

Slobogin said because of the administration's negotiations with a dozen cities, it "substantially changed the structure and conduct of police departments."

"The consent decrees, which the Obama administration pursued more vigorously than other administrations before or since, were a significant impetus for change," Slobogin said. “They required revised training on use of force, revising stop-and-frisk practices and interactions with youth and people with mental disabilities, and collection of data that can facilitate accountability, with the overall goal of improving police-community relations and enhancing public safety.”

Obama's attorneys general: Holder and Lynch

Eric H. Holder Jr. served as attorney general from 2009-2015, when he was succeeded by Loretta E. Lynch. They were the first African-American man and woman to work as the country's attorney general. They both were interested in broad reform and molded policies around large initiatives rather than specific incidents.

In 2013, Holder launched the Smart on Crime initiative, which he called "groundbreaking" in a 2015 speech. Holder specifically worked to tackle drug laws, calling them "draconian" in a 2016 New York Times opinion article.

The Smart on Crime initiative aimed to reduce penalties for low-level drug offenses so law enforcement could focus on violent offenders. It also introduced diversion programs, like rehabilitation and community service, as an option instead of incarceration.

By shifting the priorities of law enforcement from low-level offenders, officers could focus their efforts on more meaningful policing. The goal was to lessen "the burden on our nation’s brave law enforcement officers," Holder said in 2015.

Slobogin said the initiative worked to reduce the harshness of sentences. It also focused on extending support for people released from prison.

Holder asked states to remove laws that barred felons from voting and asked district attorneys to assign a reentry counselor to their district to help formerly incarcerated people adjust to life outside of prison.

"We must remember that at least 95 percent of prisoners in state jails will eventually be released," he wrote in the 2016 Times op-ed. "They should have more support for their return to society."

Lynch worked to tackle police reform and issues surrounding justice. She advocated for increasing diversity among law enforcement.

"In the winter and spring of 2015, as I was preparing to take office, I knew that community-police relations would be one of my highest priorities at Department of Justice," Lynch told 2017 graduates of the University of Baltimore School of Law.

Lynch went on a 12-city community policing tour, where she worked to advance the national conversation surrounding law enforcement.

Under her, the Department of Justice began investigating the Chicago Police Department in 2015 and uncovered a pattern of excessive use of force.

"CPD does not give its officers the training they need to do their jobs safely, effectively and lawfully," she said in January 2017 when announcing the investigation's findings. The Department of Justice began working with the city of Chicago to address reform needed in the police department.

House and Senate weren't always a Democratic majority

The only time the House and Senate were both controlled by the Democratic Party during Obama's presidency was in 2009-2010. During the midterm election in November 2010, Republicans gained control of both the Senate and the House.

Throughout the rest of Obama's presidency, neither party had total control of both chambers until the end of his tenure, when Republicans once again were the majority in both the House and Senate, closing out Obama's presidency and kicking off the beginning of Donald Trump's.

Our ruling: False

We rate this claim FALSE because the claims weren't supported by our research. The Obama administration implemented multiple policies that aimed to reform criminal justice, police and incarceration. And Congress was not fully under Democratic control during that time, as stated. Democrats had the majority in House and Senate for only two years of eight years.

Our fact-check sources:

Reach Brinley Hineman at bhineman@tennessean.com and on Twitter @brinleyhineman.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Obama implemented several police, prison reforms